Over 2,000 British nationals served in Israeli army during Gaza genocide: Report
The figures now include dual nationals, unlike earlier data that counted only 54 Britons serving as ‘lone soldiers’
Declassified UK reported on 11 February that more than 2,000 British nationals served in the Israeli army during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, according to data obtained for the first time through a Freedom of Information request submitted to Israeli authorities.
The figures were secured by lawyer Elad Man of the NGO Hatzlacha and shared with Declassified. They detail Israeli army personnel holding dual or multiple nationalities as of March 2025.
The figures show that 1,686 dual British-Israeli nationals were enlisted, along with 383 individuals who held British, Israeli, and at least one additional nationality, placing them within a broader group of more than 50,000 Israeli army personnel with multiple citizenships.
Previously, publicly available figures were limited to so-called “lone soldiers” – meaning foreign nationals without family in Israel – and recorded just 54 Britons in August 2024, according to a report by the Knesset Research and Information Center.
Legal experts told Declassified the new figures raise serious concerns, with Paul Heron of the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) stating that “There must be no impunity where credible evidence links British nationals to grave breaches of international law.”
He added, “Where dual nationals have served in units implicated in atrocities, the authorities must investigate promptly and, where the evidence meets the threshold, pursue arrest and prosecution like any other serious crime.”
A 240-page complaint was submitted last year to the Metropolitan Police war crimes unit, naming 10 Britons accused of “targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, including by sniper fire, and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.”
Michael Mansfield, one of the lawyers involved, stated that “British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.”
The Metropolitan Police did not respond to inquiries on whether investigations would follow, while the UK Foreign Office declined to comment on the newly released data and confirmed it does not track the number of Britons serving in the Israeli army.
The revelations come as part of a broader legal push by advocacy groups to hold individuals involved in Israel’s ongoing genocide accountable.
The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) recently filed a case in a US court seeking a criminal investigation of Israeli dual national Adi Karni under the War Crimes Act and the Genocide Statute, citing his role in demolishing civilian infrastructure in Gaza and his public statement that “there are no civilians in Gaza.”
The developments also align with judicial action in Europe, where French authorities issued arrest warrants last summer against two French-Israeli women accused of obstructing humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza – during a man-made famine that killed at least 475 Palestinians – with lawyers involved in the case stating that “complicity in genocide is not an abstract concept” and that deliberately depriving civilians of aid “may constitute complicity in genocide.”