More than 50 British citizens are reported to have served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to a recent report by Declassified UK. The revelations deserve to deepen scrutiny of Britain’s legal and moral responsibilities towards nationals allegedly involved in what many international observers describe as a genocidal assault.
The data originates from a report by the Knesset Research and Information Center, which found that 54 Britons were serving as so-called ‘lone soldiers’ in August 2024. These were foreign recruits without family in Israel who volunteer to fight in its armed forces.
The figure, while down from an estimated 80 the previous year, suggests that dozens of British nationals continued serving in the IDF as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza intensified.
It remains unclear whether any have since returned to the UK. Neither the Foreign Office nor the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit have confirmed whether they are tracking or investigating these individuals. Earlier this year, the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights filed a 240-page complaint with the Met. In it, they accused ten British IDF soldiers of involvement in the “targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, including by sniper fire, and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.”
The involvement of British nationals in foreign militaries has long been subject to domestic legal constraint. Under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, it is an offence for a British subject to serve in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in conflict with another nation with which the UK is at peace.
Following Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state earlier this year, that provision may have a legal basis for prosecution.
As McEvoy reports, the Israeli government, meanwhile, continues to encourage the recruitment of foreign volunteers through programmes such as Tzabar (which facilitates Jewish immigration to Israel (“Aliyah”)) and Mahal, an 18-month enlistment track for non-resident volunteers. These schemes provide financial aid, accommodation, and welfare support to thousands of foreign recruits, roughly 2 percent of whom are British.
For the British government, the question is no longer one of diplomatic caution but of legal duty. If even a fraction of the allegations against British nationals prove substantiated, their actions may fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, or under Britain’s own War Crimes Act 1991, which grants domestic courts authority to prosecute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions committed abroad.
The UK has so far shown little appetite to pursue such cases. Its failure to investigate the conduct of its own military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with the passing of the Overseas Operations Act 2021, which limits the prosecution of soldiers for war crimes, does not inspire confidence. This week’s exoneration of the only soldier prosecuted for the Bloody Sunday massacre, even more so.
Despite this the presence of British nationals in the Israeli armed forces, fighting in what numerous UN bodies have described as a campaign of “collective punishment,” raises significant questions. These cannot be ignored.
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