The missiles that struck the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid convoy this week, killing seven aid workers, including three Britons, were likely to have been “absolutely perfectly accurate” Spike missiles. This from a former British army procurement officer quoted in The Times. “If you aim at the driver’s side, you will hit the driver full-on,” Chris Lincoln-Jones told the newspaper. “If you were across the street from the car, you’d be shaken up and you might be hit by a few splinters, but you would survive.”
Israel has denied targeting the three WCK vehicles, with economy minister Nir Barkat saying Israel was “terribly sorry” about killing the WCK workers but that “unfortunately, in wars friendly fire happens”.
If Lincoln-Jones is correct – and several other press sources have suggested the same – these Spike missiles are produced by Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael, which has sold tens of thousands of them around the world. It is also thought probable that they were launched from a Hermes drone, made by Elbit Systems – also an Israeli manufacturer.
This is important, because one key focus of the story is fast becoming the legal status of those countries which have been selling arms to Israel. A letter to the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, signed by more than 600 UK lawyers and academics, including three former supreme court justices – among them Baroness Hale, the court’s former president – as well as more than 60 KCs, was revealed in The Guardian this morning. The letter, which the newspaper reports amounts to a legal opinion, says UK arms sales to Israel breach international law and must stop.
Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, an expert in international law at the University of Bristol, writes here that the UK government had received legal advice that Israel was breaking international humanitarian law in Gaza but had not revealed this. He runs us through Israel’s (and everyone else’s) obligations under various international treaties.
The key factor, Hill-Cawthorne adds, is that under the Geneva Conventions, states are obliged to do what they can to prevent violations of international humanitarian law – including taking proactive steps to ensure that warring countries comply with their obligations........