UK defence chiefs made 12 trips to Israel during Gaza war
https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-defence-chiefs-made-12-trips-to-israel-during-gaza-war
Arms control expert calls the scale of visits “a moral failing of massive proportions”.
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), the London-based research charity which analysed the material, 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.
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