UK Confirms British Soldiers Trained in Israel During Gaza Genocide
London (QNN)- The UK government has confirmed that British soldiers received training in Israel during the two-year genocide in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, marking the first official admission of a UK military presence in Israeli military academies.
In response to a parliamentary question tabled by Zarah Sultana, a former Labour MP turned independent, on November 18, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Veterans Al Carns said on Wednesday that "fewer than five British Armed Forces personnel have studied on educational staff courses in Israel since October 2023”, Declassified UK revealed, exposing a new layer of British military collaboration with Israel amid the Gaza genocide.
Charlie Herbert, a retired British army general, told Declassified: “It is absolutely extraordinary to think that UK military personnel have been undertaking military education or training courses in Israel over the past two years.
“Given the credible allegations of war crimes against the political and military leadership of the IDF, all such exchanges should have immediately ceased.”
“It does our armed forces a huge disservice to be associated with the IDF, given the conduct of the IDF in Gaza since late 2023 and to think that we are training in Israel only adds to the accusations of UK complicity in this genocide”.
In July, it was also revealed that Israeli soldiers have trained in Britain at the prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS), one of Britain’s most eminent military academies, in 2023 and 2024.
In August, the UK confirmed Royal Air Force surveillance planes have been conducting surveillance flights over Gaza since the start of the genocide with the coordination with Israeli forces raising concerns about complicity in war crimes.
The UK has also supplied Israel with arms during the course of its assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and has involved the ethnic cleansing of most Palestinians from their homes. Around 80 percent of buildings and homes have been destroyed.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has deemed that there is a "plausible" case for genocide by Israel in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
