LAWYERS shared harrowing testimonies today from doctors who treated children shot through the heart in Gaza as the government defended its decision to continue exporting arms to Israel in court.

In written submissions for the case, the government has claimed there is a “tenable view that no genocide has occurred or is occurring.”

But last August, doctors submitted chilling evidence now being shared by Global Legal Action Network (Glan), which launched the challenge alongside Palestinian organisation Al-Haq.

Dr Mark Perlmutter, who has been a humanitarian surgeon for 30 years, travelled to Gaza with the World Health Organisation last year.

He recounted how he “saw more incinerated and shredded children than I have ever seen in my entire life of working in war zones combined.”

He described treating children “whose faces had been completely disfigured, exposing the muscles.

“They no longer had faces".

"I treated so many children that had been snipered, some of them multiple times.”

He said that he evaluated two children who had been snipered twice each in the head and chest.

“These two children were shot so perfectly in the chest that I couldn’t have put my stethoscope over their hearts more accurately.”

He said there were multiple pre-teen children with gunshot wounds to the head.

“Their families told us they had been shot by Israeli forces while playing inside or in the street.”

He described seeing a three-year-old shot in the head and neck: “I could see it was not an accident.”

Recalling treating a nine-year-old girl whose body had been torn to shreds by an explosion, he said: “Just touching the blanket on her bed elicited shrieks of pain and terror.

“As I placed Juri on the operating room table, maggots fell in clumps from her wounds.”

Dr Perlmutter noted that bombing seemed to peak during Iftar, when families gathered to break their Ramadan fast.

He said that medical workers looked “extremely malnourished” and had jaundiced eyes indicating hepatitis.

Gaza’s whole healthcare system had been “decimated,” he said.

London-based surgeon Dr Khaled Dawas said the hospital conditions were “what I imagine medieval medicine to have been like.”

He told of how some patients needed stomas (an abdominal opening for waste diversion), but there weren’t enough ileostomy bags.

Most children were being cared for without them by their parents, meaning there was a “constant pouring of faeces wherever they are.”

He also recalled how the clearly marked hospital he was working in was shot at in broad daylight with a bullet “too large” to be from a gun.

Dr Nick Maynard, a British consultant who has been going to Gaza to teach medical students, said the majority of patients he saw were children with severe burns from blast injuries.  

“Some children were burnt so badly they would not survive but we had no morphine to give them, so they died excruciating deaths,” he said.

He met then-foreign secretary David Cameron and foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell in February 2024 in a packed-out meeting with other humanitarian NGOs.

Dr Maynard said he had little time, but described the horrors he witnessed, and showed them photographs of children’s injuries.

But the meeting was abruptly ended as Lord Cameron had another engagement.

“I left the meeting with no confidence that the information would be acted upon, and in my view the information we gave them was ignored,” Dr Maynard said.

He also noted that when another attendee mentioned genocide, Mr Mitchell responded that “any mention of genocide was both obnoxious and hideous.”

“I do not think he was particularly interested in what we had to say, and minister Mitchell spent the entire time on his phone,” Mr Maynard said.

In written submissions, the government quoted an annexe provided to the foreign secretary last July, which claimed that “no evidence has been seen that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian women or children.”

The same guidance also assessed: “A finding that Israel is not committed to comply with IHL (International Humanitarian Law) does not necessarily indicate that it is harbouring genocidal intent.”

The legal challenge, which calls for a ban on all arms exports to Israel, was first launched 19 months ago.

Labour suspended 30 licences in September, but “carved out” components for lethal F-35 jets, arguing that they are part of a global supply programme and stopping them altogether would have a “profound impact” on international security.

The government said it would not export them directly to Israel but lawyers warn they could still end up there via F-35 partner countries, breaking international and domestic law.

In written submissions, the government claimed that the likelihood of British-manufactured components being used in Israeli planes is “very small” and that since the IDF is one of the most “well-equipped militaries in the world,” the impact of suspending F-35 components is “likely to be minimal.”

But research by Campaign Against the Arms Trade found that the open licence for spare parts was used 14 times more in 2023 than in any other year.

Glan lawyers argue that the Israeli Air Force has itself confirmed it is heavily dependent on the fleet, with its own press release revealing they had “accumulated 15,000 flight hours” since it escalated its attacks.

Some 15 per cent of the jets, which have dropped 2,000lb bombs on “safe zones” in Gaza, are made in Britain.

On Thursday, government figures showed that Sir Keir’s government greenlit more military exports to Israel in three months than the Tories did in three years.

Labour approved over £127.6 million worth of military equipment in single issue licences — mostly covering military radars, components and software as well as targeting equipment, between October to December 2024.

Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Emily Apple said: “This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“The government’s claim that stopping the export of F-35 components is a risk to peace and security is untenable, illegal and immoral.”

A recent analysis of data from the Israel Tax Authority shows that Britain delivered 8,000 munitions since the partial export ban.
Evidence also shows Britain shipped 150,000 bullets to Israel in October 2023.