UK: Health workers urge Keir Starmer to end arms sales to Israel

An open letter signed by 30 health professionals who worked in Gaza says stopping arms sales is 'morally as well as legally' necessary

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to end arm sales to Israel [Toby Melville | AFP]

Dozens of UK-based doctors, nurses and medical professionals who worked in Gaza have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel.

In an open letter coordinated by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), the health workers warned Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy that continuing arms sales could put the UK in violation of international law and said ending them is "morally as well as legally right".

“It is difficult for many of us to recount the scenes we witnessed in Gaza, not least of all in the knowledge that many of the injuries we treated may have resulted from the use of weapons systems and components supplied from Britain," the letter read.

The letter also noted that “with only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both”.

Citing domestic British law, international humanitarian law (IHL) and Britain’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, the signatories stressed that it was imperative to halt the sales.

"We are among the only neutral observers who have been permitted to enter the Gaza Strip since 7 October," said the health workers.

"With international journalists being targeted and denied access to Gaza, our eyewitness experiences have had to serve in place of journalistic or investigatory accounts."

Since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October, disquiet has been growing among civil servants over the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel.

In May, a former civil servant working on international aid policy reported in Declassified UK that up to 300 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff had formally raised concerns about Britain’s complicity in Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In July, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), representing British civil servants, requested a meeting with the Cabinet Office to discuss the war in Gaza and its implications for government employees.

On his first day in office, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he had requested a comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.

In July, sources told MEE that the UK was expected to introduce restrictions on arms sales to Israel. However, subsequent reports in the Times and the Guardian suggested that the decision was delayed due to legal challenges in distinguishing between UK-made weapons used by Israel in its war on Gaza and those used for defence purposes.