Israeli and UK military commanders could be requested to give evidence to an inquest concerning three British workers killed in Gaza when aid vehicles they were travelling in were hit by an airstrike.<\/p>\n
It is also possible that the inquest into the deaths of John Chapman, 57, Jim Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47<\/a>, may examine whether the weaponry that killed the men was made in the UK.<\/p>\n Until now, the focus of the inquest has been on the role played by the aid organisation in charge of the convoy and the security firm that was protecting it. But at a pre-inquest review, Maria Voisin, the senior coroner for Avon, indicated that the scope of the final hearing would probably be widened to include the role of Israeli authorities in the deaths.<\/p>\n The coroner said she was \u201cminded\u201d to designate the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the colonel who ordered the strikes, Nochi Mendel, as \u201cinterested parties\u201d<\/a> for the inquest. Interested parties are often relatives of the person who died or an organisation or individual believed to be closely involved in what happened.<\/p>\n Israeli military authorities last month said they would not open criminal investigations into the strike<\/a> which, along with the three Britons, also killed the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom<\/a>, and one each from Poland, Palestine<\/a> and the US. The UK, Australian and Canadian governments called the Israeli decision \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n One of the vehicles in which employees of the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza in 2024. Photograph: ReutersMap showing sequence of events that led to aid workers being killed in Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n In a written submission to the court, Pete Weatherby KC, for Henderson, compared the case to that of the novichok attack by the Russian state in Salisbury, in which the British woman Dawn Sturgess was killed.<\/a><\/p>\n In that case, the high court in London ruled the lack of any criminal investigation by the Russian authorities and the strong public concern surrounding the circumstances of Sturgess\u2019s death necessitated the expansion of the scope of the investigation.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the three men accepted that it was possible Israel would not cooperate with the inquest but called for UK ministers to try to apply pressure if needed. Another element the families are keen to have investigated is the role the British military may have played in the incident in April 2024.<\/p>\n