On 4 February, US President Donald Trump made an unexpected announcement. Speaking to the media in the White House alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a fugitive from the International Criminal Court — Trump declared that the US would “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip, transforming it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Netanyahu hailed Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”

To make way for this colonial fantasy, Trump announced that the US would expel “1.7 or 1.8 million Palestinians” from Gaza. Before the war, Gaza’s population stood at around 2.2 or 2.3 million. Whether Trump’s figures came from US or Israeli intelligence, or some other source, remains unclear. But if accurate, they imply that the genocide in Gaza has already claimed around half a million lives.

That is precisely what Raz Segal, a Professor of Genocide Studies, argued on Friday 5 September at the UK Gaza Tribunal, convened by Progressive International Council Member Jeremy Corbyn to investigate the UK’s role in the slaughter. Testifying before the Tribunal, Segal, drawing on studies published in the medical journal The Lancet, explained that the official death toll is likely less than half the real figure. The Gaza Health Ministry’s latest count of 65,000 deaths from traumatic injury points to a reality closer to 130,000.

These deaths were no accident. British trauma surgeon Nick Maynard, who operated in Gaza, testified that he witnessed “Israeli soldiers targeting civilians’ specific body parts — one day shooting at the head, another day at the testicles.”

And this is only the beginning. Indirect deaths — from hunger, disease, and the destruction of Gaza’s means of life — push the toll far higher. “There is also consensus that the ratio of indirect death to direct death in situations such as Gaza — due to famine, hunger and disease — ranges from 3:1 to 15:1,” Segal noted.

Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed described the process firsthand: “Starvation means that we had to eat meat specified for animals and drink contaminated water.”

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is the most intense assault on any territory in the 21st century. “The ratio in this case is probably higher, rather than lower,” Segal added. Even a conservative estimate suggests that on top of 130,000 direct deaths from trauma, Israel’s all-out assault has created the conditions for the slow, painful deaths of perhaps 390,000 more Palestinians.

At Church House, Westminster, Britain’s role in these deaths was under the microscope. The Tribunal heard from Mark Smith, a Foreign Office official who resigned over the UK’s continuing sale of arms to Israeli occupation forces. Smith explained that when he and other colleagues questioned the legality of supplying weapons for the assault, they were shut down — including warnings not to put their concerns in writing. “Thousands of conversations within the walls of the Foreign Office on the most controversial aspects of our arms sales policy will never be seen by the public [and] never be put to a court,” Smith said.

One of the central controversies is Britain’s role in the F-35 stealth strike jet programme, of which the UK manufactures about 15% of every aircraft. “At least 75 companies across the UK are involved in manufacturing components [for] the F-35 programme,” testified Katie Fallon, Advocacy Manager at Campaign Against the Arms Trade. Successive British governments have refused to halt these exports.

The Tribunal also heard from investigative journalists about the military entanglement between Britain and Israel. John McEvoy, Chief Reporter at Declassified UK, testified that the UK was training Israeli troops as recently as last month. Matt Kennard presented evidence of surveillance and refuelling flights from Britain’s Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus. His assessment was stark: “Britain's involvement in the genocide crosses the line into participation. The UK Government, through its different military and intelligence agencies, has been a participant."

As Guillaume Long, former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister and advisor to The Hague Group, put it: “The UK is clearly in breach of its obligations under international law, choosing instead to protect its arms industry over the lives of Palestinians.”

While the British state shields its arms industry, the British people refuse to support this criminal course. Rami Khayal, of the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the Tribunal: “We should be proud that British popular will is on the right side of history. Now, the political powers that be must implement it.”

What that will demand is precisely what international law requires. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, made it plain: “All ties with Israel must be cut. This is what it means to comply with international law.”

Closing the Tribunal, Jeremy Corbyn said, “We can’t just be bystanders and witnesses, we can and have to do something about it.”

That means stopping the ships that routinely deliver arms, fuel, and dual-use goods to power Israel’s slaughter. On Thursday 4 September, the No Harbour for Genocide campaign — led by a coalition including the Progressive International — published a “block list” of 36 “genocide carriers,” vessels that ship arms, fuel, and supplies to Israel.

The announcement was reported on by Middle East Eye and El Diario. “We will not allow them to pass unchallenged,” said David Adler, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International. “From the ports to the parliaments, from the courts to the streets, we will coordinate action at every level to stop these vessels and end their complicity in genocide.”

As the Tribunal exposed Britain’s complicity in crimes against humanity, the world also glimpsed the genocidaires’ future vision. A plan circulating in the White House leaked to the Washington Post reveals Trump’s so-called “Gaza Riviera Project” in detail: beachfront resorts, golf courses, and luxury marinas built atop the ruins of Gaza, marketed to investors as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

The ethnic cleansing of Palestine is not an accident of war — it is the condition of profit. And the choice, as the Tribunal reminded us, is clear. We can be bystanders. Or we can act, now, to stop the ships, break the siege, and save lives.

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