British citizens serving in the IDF can now be tried for war crimes

The legal landscape around UK citizens serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has shifted, lawyers say. Palestinian statehood means that Brits who served in Israel’s genocide can be tried and jailed.

Paul Heron of Public Interest Law Centre told Novara Media:

The legal landscape has shifted.

Now that Palestine has been recognised as a state, the legal and moral excuses for inaction have fallen away.

For the first time, it is now arguable that British dual nationals serving in the Israeli military in Gaza or the West Bank could fall foul of the Foreign Enlistment Act, a law that makes it an offence for a British subject to fight for a foreign state at war with another state with which the UK is at peace.

Foreign enlistment act: applicable to the IDF?

Technically the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 means Brits who served in foreign armies can be jailed or fined. But the act is very old and poorly enforced. Heron said may not serve as a basis for prosecution.

In April 2010, Public Law Interest Centre and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted evidence to British police regarding ten individuals who’d served in the Israeli military:

Our 240-page submission to the Metropolitan police highlights that the UK cannot turn a blind eye.

The police have the power, the resources and the responsibility to investigate British nationals alleged to have taken part in war crimes, wherever they occur.

How many serve?

In March 2024, Declassified UK reported that 80 Brits were serving in the Israeli military on 7 October 2023. However, we only know this as Declassified submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the government.

Phil Miller wrote:

They took so long to answer that the Information Commissioner threatened to have the High Court hold them in contempt.

The request was sensitive because the government had previously told parliament it does not track the number of Britons serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) or living in illegal settlements.

Those figures also showed “approximately 20-30 British Citizens residing in illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Death toll

The first stage of a new ceasefire started 9 October. Though as of Thursday afternoon (GMT) Israel forces still appear to be engaged:

Video shows an lsraeli tank firing at Palestinians in Gaza pic.twitter.com/b4Wfr99uxp

— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) October 9, 2025

Estimates of the Palestinian death toll vary between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousand. Israeli has hindered international reporting in the devastated enclave. A UN commission found that the settler-colonial state is committing genocide in September.

UK recognition of Palestinian statehood has also opened a legal route for colonial-era war crimes cases. Lawyers acting for Palestinian families submitted a 400-page document on 26 September.

Law scholar Victor Kattan, who speaks for the families, told the BBC:

Britain denied self-government to the Palestinian community… It empowered a high commissioner to behave like a dictator [and] Palestinian people bore the brunt.

Recognition alone does not deal with all these historic problems which for Palestinians are not history but the living reality to this day.

Featured image via the Canary