PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Israel: Arms Trade (29 October 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2024 to Question 7719 on Israel: Arms Trade, what the basis is for a lack of sufficient verifiable evidence of possible breaches of International Humanitarian Law; and what account he has taken of submissions to his Department by (a) Al-Haq, (b) Global Legal Action Network, (c) Amnesty International, (d) Al-Mezan, (e) Human Rights Watch, (f) B'tselem, (g) Yesh-Din, and (h) Gisha.

Asked by:
Abtisam Mohamed (Labour)

The International Humanitarian Law (IHL) assessment process gathers information from a wide range of sources, including reporting from international and multilateral bodies, NGOs on the ground, open-source evidence and internal reporting. We do not comment on individual pieces of evidence.

IHL assessments consider the three aspects of Israel's compliance: conduct of hostilities; humanitarian access and relief; and detainees. A lack of sufficient verifiable evidence applies only to the conduct of hostilities. This is in part due to the opaque and contested information environment in Gaza and the challenges of accessing specific and sensitive information, such as intended targets and anticipated civilian harm. However, the assessment's findings on Israel's compliance and commitment in the areas of humanitarian relief and treatment of detainees give cause for concern about its attitude and approach to the conduct of hostilities, as does the scale of the destruction and the number of civilian deaths. The Foreign Secretary has raised these concerns with the Government of Israel.

More information on the process can be found at: Summary of the IHL process, decision and the factors taken into account - GOV.UK.

Answered by:
Mr Hamish Falconer (Labour)
6 November 2024