MINISTERS involved in arms exports to Israel could be criminally liable for war crimes, legal experts warned today.

More than 600 lawyers, including three former Supreme Court justices, have signed a letter telling Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that Britain risks breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel in its assault on Gaza. 

It said that the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” oblige Britain to suspend the sales.

They called on the government to immediately halt arms exports given the clear risk that they might be used to commit serious violations “in breach of the UK’s domestic Strategic Export Licensing Criteria [...] including its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty.”

The letter said: “We recall that UK nationals responsible for aiding and abetting international crimes, as well as those committing them as primary perpetrators, are liable for prosecution in the UK pursuant to the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 and the International Criminal Court Act 2001.”

More than 50 Labour MPs have signed a petition by Momentum calling for the suspension of arms sales as pressure piles on the party leadership, after the SNP and Liberal Democrats backed the demands.

Among them was Labour MP Richard Burgon. He highlighted that last month UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul told MPs at a war crimes evidence hearing that officials involved in arms exports “may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting international crimes in Gaza where they knew that the arms would be so used.” 

Since 2008, Britain has licensed arms worth over £574 million to Israel, according to analysis of government data by Campaign Against Arms Trade.

On Monday evening, seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed by Israeli strikes using a drone made by Elbit Systems.

According to CAAT, its engine was produced in Britain by Elbit subsidiary UAV Engines Limited. 

John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, had just delivered tons of food to starving people in Gaza on behalf of charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).

WCK founder Jose Andres said the Israeli military knew the aid workers’ movements and targeted them “systematically, car by car.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it as “unintentional” and said, “this happens in war.”

Mr Andres said: “This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place.

“This was […] a humanitarian convoy that had signs on the roof: a very colourful logo that we are obviously very proud of.

“It’s very clear who we are and what we do.”

WCK have called on the governments of the victims who were nationals of Australia, Canada, US, Poland and Britain, to join them in a third-party investigation into the attacks.

After the attack, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf wrote to Mr Sunak warning of Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes.

He told the Prime Minister: “The UK government continue to allow British-based companies to arm Israel despite the fact that Israel has killed children, women, aid workers and bombed hospitals, schools and refugee camps.”

The SNP has called for MPs to return to the House of Commons early from their Easter break to “debate and vote on ending arms sales to Israel.”

SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said that if the government is “unwilling to act then Parliament should force them to do so.”

Plaid Cymru echoed demands for an immediate recall of Parliament, and called on all political parties to be “held to account the government’s reluctant response to the growing evidence of Israel’s state-enabled. targeted killings of innocent people.”

Mr Sunak has insisted that Britain has been “consistently clear” with Israel that it must abide by international law.

In an interview with LBC, veteran Tory and former minister Sir Alan Duncan suggested that Lord Polak and Lord Pickles, senior officials for lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI),  be “removed from the Lords” for “exercising the interests of another country.”

He said that CFI’s influence has resulted in “a lot of people sitting around Rishi Sunak who are giving him appalling advice.”