Britain’s most senior military personnel made at least a dozen official visits to Israel during the Gaza war, newly published government data reveals. The trips, largely unpublicised, almost entirely took place as Israeli forces barraged Gaza and international calls for an arms embargo intensified.
The scale of these visits is revealed in recent Ministry of Defence (MoD) expense records and senior staff travel disclosures covering November 2023 to March 2025. They detail the costs of visits by officers ranked two-star and above and senior MoD civil servants, including Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton and General Sir James Hockenhull. Together, the trips cost more than £18,000, excluding several Royal Air Force (RAF) flights recorded as “nil return.”
Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), which analysed the material for the media outlet Declassified UK, found that Britain’s defence establishment maintained regular contact with Israel’s armed forces throughout the conflict. The findings expand on Declassified’s earlier reporting, which identified five such visits as well as a meeting by Major General Zac Stenning. These additional records show that senior British officers continued to travel to Israel well into 2025, meeting their counterparts even as accusations of war crimes mounted.
One of the most sensitive visits was made by Shimon Fhima, the MoD’s director of strategic programmes, who travelled to Israel shortly after the January 2025 ceasefire, for meetings described as “regarding Directed Energy Weapons”. Fhima’s directorate oversees the UK’s high energy laser and electromagnetic weapons programme. These are technologies central to Britain’s pursuit of so called next-generation capabilities and could be used to shoot down missiles. Fhima’s trip, however, raises concerns about the UK benefiting from Israeli weaponry technology honed in what has been described as the “Palestine Laboratory”.
A long-serving MoD technocrat with a background in engineering and procurement, Fhima has been a prominent advocate for integrating advanced science and dual-use technologies into national security policy.
The first post 7 October 2023 engagement regarding Israel did not occur in Tel Aviv, but in the United States. On 28 November 2023, Lieutenant General Charles Walker travelled to Virginia for a trilateral meeting with American and French officials to discuss Ukraine and Israel. This trip is not included in our tally of twelve visits. A week later, on 6 December, Admiral Radakin flew to Tel Aviv with then defence secretary Grant Shapps on a RAF flight.
On 28 December, General Hockenhull made a UK–Israel bilateral visit. This was one day before South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Air Chief Marshal Knighton followed on 9–11 January 2024, spending £3,344 on an overseas visit to Tel Aviv.
Ten days later Radakin returned to Israel to meet the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, to “discuss future operations in the region”. By that point, the bombardment of Gaza had already claimed around 25,000 lives.
On 13 February, Hockenhull hosted Israeli Major General Eliezer Toledano in London for tri-service meetings. The following month, Lieutenant General Charlie Stickland, Chief of Joint Operations, travelled to Tel Aviv for “MoD-directed meetings” on 18–19 March. RELATED
At the same time, Air Marshal Paul Wyatt, Director-General for Security Policy, made a trip to Tel Aviv and Washington for consultations with Israeli and American officials. Their combined expenses exceeded £4,000.
The MoD’s director of space, Air Marshal Harv Smyth, visited Tel Aviv for one day on 2 July 2024. In January 2025, Air Vice-Marshal Philip Robinson also travelled to Israel’s capital. Three more visits followed. Major General Philip McNee, the Surgeon General, attended meetings with the Israeli armed forces between 9 and 13 February 2025.
Major General Zac Stenning travelled to Tel Aviv from 2 to 5 March for discussions on “integration and campaigning”; and Smyth returned later that month for another official visit to Tel Aviv and North Command. Photographs released by the Israel Defence Forces confirmed an additional meeting between Radakin and Halevi in August 2024. Radakin and Stickland are now both retired. In November that year, the MoD invited Halevi to London, granting him temporary legal immunity to prevent potential arrest for alleged war crimes under universal jurisdiction laws.
Officials insist that these visits were part of standard diplomatic engagement. Yet they occurred while Britain continued to license arms exports to Israel and as the humanitarian toll in Gaza drew global outrage.
Roy Isbister, who leads the NGO Saferworld’s work on conventional arms, told Declassified: “I can only shake my head when comparing the government’s attitude to those protesting a genocide to those carrying it out. How did we get to this point?
“The UK government’s insistence on supporting the Israeli military machine despite its actions in Gaza and the West Bank is not only trashing the UK’s self-declared position as a champion of the ‘international rules-based order’, it is a moral failing of massive proportions.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “As part of the concerted UK effort to support security and stability in the Middle East and to achieve a peaceful resolution following ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, we conducted defence engagement in the region alongside partners and allies to deescalate tensions in the Middle East.”
Visits by senior UK defence officials relating to Israel (Nov 2023 – Mar 2025)
6 December 2023 – Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Tel Aviv, Israel – Accompanied the Secretary of State for Defence on official RAF flight. Recorded as nil return.
28 December 2023 – General Sir James Hockenhull, Tel Aviv, Israel – UK–Israel bilateral visit. Travelled by air (Business). Cost: £2,875.11.
9–11 January 2024 – Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Luton, UK; Tel Aviv, Israel – Overseas visit to Israel. Travelled by scheduled flight and MoD staff car (Business). Cost: £3,344.01.
21–22 January 2024 – Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Tel Aviv, Israel – Meeting with Israel’s Chief of Staff to discuss “future operations in the region”. Travelled by scheduled flight (Business/Premium Economy). Cost: £2,174.19. [Retired]
18–19 March 2024 – Lieutenant General Charles Stickland, Tel Aviv, Israel – MoD-directed attendance at meetings with Israeli counterparts. Travelled by scheduled flight (Economy). Cost: £1,229.49. [Retired]
18–22 March 2024 – Mr Paul Wyatt, Tel Aviv, Israel; Washington, USA – Meetings with counterparts. Travelled by civilian air (Economy/Premium Economy). Cost: £2,944.28.
2 July 2024 – Air Marshal Harvey Smyth, Tel Aviv, Israel – Duty travel for meeting with Colonel Cooper-Simpson. Travelled by scheduled flight (Business). Cost: £915.50.
13–17 January 2025 – Air Vice-Marshal Philip Robinson, Amman, Jordan; Tel Aviv, Israel – Operations GLANCE and SHADER visit. Travelled by scheduled flight (Economy). Cost: £2,060.73.
26–30 January 2025 – Mr Shimon Fhima, Tel Aviv, Israel – Trip “regarding Directed Energy Weapons (DEW)”. Travelled by scheduled flight (Premium Economy). Cost: £1,687.66.
9–13 February 2025 – Maj Gen Philip McNee, Tel Aviv, Israel – Israeli Armed Forces visit. Travelled by scheduled flight (Standard). Cost: £894.52.
2–5 March 2025 – Maj Gen Zac Stenning, Tel Aviv, Israel – Visit for “integration and campaigning”, meeting with one-star counterpart. Travelled by scheduled flight and train (Standard). Cost: £1,241.46.
27–28 March 2025 – Air Marshal Harvey Smyth, Tel Aviv and North Command, Israel – Official visit. Travelled by scheduled flight (Economy). Cost: £488.
Visits by senior UK defence officials relating to the US to discuss Israel (Nov 2023 – Mar 2025)
28 November 2023 – Sir Charles Roland Vincent Walker, Virginia, USA – Attended P3 meeting between UK, US, and France to discuss Ukraine and Israel. Travelled by air (Premium Economy/Business). Cost: £9,667.
Meetings by senior UK defence officials with Israeli forces in the UK (Nov 2023 – Mar 2025)
13 February 2024 – General Sir James Hockenhull, London, UK – Hosted visit from Major General Eliezer Toledano of the Israel Defence Forces for tri-service meetings and meeting with Director SONIC. Cost: £6.52.
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