Foreign Office closes Israel-Gaza international law unit amid cuts

The Foreign Office unit tracking potential breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and more recently Lebanon has been closed because of cuts within the department, the Guardian can reveal.

The decision to shut the international humanitarian law cell follows a review by Olly Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office dismissed last week by the prime minister over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

The unit's closure comes only a fortnight after the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said respect and support for international law would be one of the linchpins of her department under her leadership in her major annual set piece foreign policy speech.

The decision also means funding for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project run by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) will end. The centre had been doing a range of work for the Foreign Office including the world's largest open source monitoring of incidents across Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. It is the only programme in the UK that collects, verifies and analyses human rights and conflict incidents in Israel and the occupied territories.

The closure of the IHL cell is part of a cut in funding to the conflict and atrocity prevention team, work that has been critical in sending out warnings to the Foreign Office of potential atrocities including in Sudan.

Officials have been warned the closure of the Conflict and Security Monitoring project will mean the Foreign Office will lose access to a database of 26,000 verified incidents in the Middle East. The database holds information on incidents stretching back to 7 October 2023, the day Hamas fighters launched the surprise mass attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and led to the abduction of 200 Israelis.

It is thought to be the largest database of its kind in the world, and is used to monitor trends and make analyses possible. The database is also used to help Foreign Office teams decide whether arms export control licences to Israel should remain suspended, and helps officials conclude whether international humanitarian law concerns such as proportionality are being breached.

It is understood the head of the war crimes team in the counter-terrorism unit urged the FCDO to understand how important the work of the CIR was in helping the Metropolitan police consider war crimes allegations.

As well as maintaining the database, the CIR has conducted more than 20 open-source investigations, including into the potentially unlawful shooting of minors in Gaza. The UK embassies in Tel Aviv, Beirut and Damascus, as well as the consulate in Jerusalem, have turned to the CIR for rapid assessments of large incidents. The Israel-Gaza conflict map it has provided has had tens of thousands of views, once more than 25,000 views in one day.

The cuts appear to be driven by the decision to cut the overseas aid budget to 0.3% of gross national income despite maintaining the target to reach 0.7% when resources allow. But Robbins was also pushing through a restructuring at head office that was leading to the closure of a range of teams including the IHL cell.

In her Mansion House speech, Cooper said: "It might be tempting to think that international law and the role of international frameworks are out of date, and that in championing them, we somehow cherish rules over national interests. Well, I reject that view, because we're not just defending the status quo.

"The role that rules-based frameworks play is vital, and respect for the rule of law is a core British value that supports our national interest, underpins our economic stability, makes us a reliable place for international investment, while the whole world spins around us and underpins our security and prosperity.

"It's in Britain's interests to be a dependable power, a country that keeps its word, a stable base for investment and a partner of choice".

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.