Images available here: striking photos featuring a masked figure of Keir Starmer holding a placard denying the mass atrocities in Gaza © Marie-Anne Ventoura/Amnesty International

Today (13 May) is the first day of a four-day hearing where the UK government will appear at the High Court to defend its ongoing licensing of arms exports to Israel. These exports have been linked to potential war crimes in Gaza, including bombings in Al-Mawasi, a designated safe zone where at least 90 people were reported to have been killed in a single attack.  

Amnesty International UK staged a visual protest featuring a masked figure of Keir Starmer holding a placard denying the mass atrocities in Gaza, emblazoned with the words: ‘What Genocide?’ - a visual critique of political silence amid mass civilian suffering. Images available here © Marie-Anne Ventoura/Amnesty International.

Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch have intervened in the case to submit evidence that demonstrates the Israeli authorities' lack of commitment to international humanitarian law, and legal argument regarding the UK government's failure to properly implement its obligations to prevent genocide, under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention.

Commenting on the first day of the hearing, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

"Under the Genocide Convention, the UK has a clear legal obligation to do everything within its power to prevent genocide. Yet the UK government continues to authorise the export of military equipment to Israel - despite all the evidence that genocide is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This is a fundamental failure by the UK to fulfil its obligations.

"What is unfolding in Gaza is not hidden - it is being broadcast to the world in real time. Entire Palestinian families are being wiped out in their homes. Civilians are being targeted in what should be safe spaces. Gaza’s medical system has been systematically dismantled, its water and sanitation infrastructure destroyed, and its population subjected to starvation and siege. Over a million people have been forcibly displaced, with no safe place to go. These acts are not accidental and there’s only one conclusion that can be reached: this is genocide.

"The time for equivocation is over. The UK must immediately suspend all arms exports to Israel and uphold its obligations under international law. Anything less makes a mockery of the UK’s stated commitment to human rights, the rule of law, and the principles of the Genocide Convention."