General Zachary Stenning is leading a UK military delegation to Israel. (Photo: Tim Ireland / Alamy)
Exclusive: UK military accused of giving a “fig leaf” to Israeli forces as another trip to Tel Aviv is uncovered.
A senior British soldier is heading to Israel for a briefing from the country’s military, despite it being under investigation for genocide and war crimes, Declassified has found.
The trip will be led by major general Zachary Stenning, a former commandant of Sandhurst officer academy.
He is now a director of Strategic Command, part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Known as StratCom, it describes its role as “learning and adapting to make Defence more lethal…We are the capabilities you don’t usually see. Or those you can’t.”
The trip is taking place just weeks after the Israeli military’s head of operations, General Oded Basyuk, had to be given immunity from prosecution to visit the MoD in London.
Israeli generals are afraid of being detained abroad after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over the siege of Gaza.
Business as usual
Although the UK government has banned the export of certain weapons to Israel, Declassified understands that the MoD is routinely conducting bilateral military engagement with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
John Deverell, a retired brigadier who was director of defence diplomacy at the MoD, told Declassified that British soldiers should not be visiting Israel at this time.
He said: “Our MoD should not have anything to do with their Israeli opposite numbers – and nor should British armed forces as a whole.
“Any relationship between the two militaries is useful to the IDF because an onlooker can infer that the British Army agrees with how the IDF conducts operations. In effect, it gives a sort of fig leaf to the IDF.
“But the danger to the British of the series of meetings that are apparently taking place is significant. At the least we are perceived as non-critical of the IDF. And at worst we may be seen as complicit in war crimes.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
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Minister of Justice and Correctional Services of South Africa Ronald Lamola answers the questions of press members related to the public hearings of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands on January 11, 2024 [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]
South Africa has vowed not to withdraw its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), despite the Trump administration’s threats and aid cut.
There is “no chance” South Africa could withdraw the case it filed in December 2023, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told the Financial Times.
“Standing by our principles sometimes has consequences, but we remain firm that this is important for the world, and the rule of law,” he added.
South Africa was the first nation to drag Israel to the ICJ over its genocidal war on Gaza that has claimed more than 48,000 lives and reduced the enclave to rubble. A ceasefire that took hold on 19 January is currently in place.
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting financial aid to South Africa in retaliation for a new land appropriation law it claims seizes property from the country’s White minority, as well as the ICJ case against Israel.
The US also alleges that South Africa is working with Iran to “develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements.”
“The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its ‘undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests,” the order read.
“While we do have a good relationship with Iran, we don’t have any nuclear programmes with them, nor any trade to speak of,” Lamola said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed the expropriation bill into law, which will allow the state to expropriate land without compensation if it is “just, equitable and in the public interest.”
The government says the law aims to address apartheid’s past injustices, and that Trump’s accusations are lies, distortions and misinformation.
According to Ramaphosa, the country was only receiving HIV/AIDS prevention funding from the US.
After South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel alleging violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention in the Gaza Strip, several countries joined the case including Nicaragua, Colombia, Cuba, Libya, Mexico, Spain, Belize and Turkiye.
The International Criminal Court has separately issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Trump has also sanctioned the ICC for investing Israeli officials.
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Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to reporters in the White House in Washington, D.C. on February 4, 2025. (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” which would be emptied of Palestinians.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will “take over” Gaza after emptying the embattled enclave of nearly all its native Palestinians, sparking a firestorm of criticism that included allegations of intent to commit ethnic cleansing.
Speaking during a press conference with fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”
“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings—level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” Trump continued.
“We’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something that the entire Middle East could be very proud of,” he said, evoking the proposals of varying seriousness to build Jewish-only beachfront communities over the ruins of Gaza.
Doubling down on his January call for the removal of most of Gaza’s population to Egypt and Jordan—both of which vehemently rejected the proposal—Trump said that “it would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where [Palestinians] wouldn’t want to return.”
“Why would they want to return?” asked Trump. “The place has been hell.”
Asked how many Palestinians should leave Gaza, Trump replied, “all of them,” citing a figure of 1.7-1.8 million Palestinians out of an estimated population of approximately 2.3 million people.
The forced transfer of a population by an occupying power is a war crime, according to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—under which Israel’s settler colonies in the occupied West Bank are also illegal.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” Trump continued. “Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative. If they had an alternative, they’d much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that’s safe.”
Asked if he would deploy U.S. troops to Gaza, Trump said that “we’ll do what’s necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that.”
Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour responded by affirming that “our country and our home is the Gaza Strip.”
“It’s part of Palestine,” he stressed. “Our homeland is our homeland.”
Responding to Trump’s remarks, Netanyahu praised his ally’s “willingness to puncture conventional thinking” and stand behind Israel.
“[Trump] sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations,” Netanyahu told reporters as he stood beside the U.S. leader. “He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it. He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff.”
“I think it’s something that could change history,” Netanyahu added, “and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
There is currently a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege have left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and more than 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to local and international officials and agencies.
Numerous Israeli leaders have advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the Jewish recolonization of the coastal enclave, most of whose inhabitants are the descendants of Palestinians forcibly expelled from other parts of Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in the late 1940s. Palestinians ethnically cleansed during what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, have since been denied their U.N.-guaranteed right of return to their homeland.
Last November, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon acknowledged that the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza was underway. Other Israeli political and military leaders have said that the so-called “Generals’ Plan”—a strategy to starve and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from northern Gaza—was effectively in progress.
Palestinian-American journalist Ramzy Baroud responded to Trump’s remarks in a video posted on social media Tuesday.
“Now, you would say, ‘Wait a minute, Trump seems to be really, really determined, his heart is set on ethnically cleansing Palestinians, and this subject is back on the table,'” Baroud said. “The question is, whose table? It’s not on the table of the Palestinian people.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and continuing the freeze on funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Israel has baselessly accused of being a terrorist organization.
In a fact sheet viewed by multiple media outlets, the White House asserted that UNHRC “has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations.”
“The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings,” the White House continued. “In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined.”
UNHRC spokesperson Pascal Sim noted Tuesday that the U.S. has been an observer state, not a UNHRC member, since January 1, and according to U.N. rules, it cannot “technically withdraw from an intergovernmental body that is no longer part of.”
The UNRWA funding pause is based on Israeli claims—reportedly extracted from Palestinian prisoners in an interrogation regime rife with torture and abuse—that a dozen of the agency’s more than 13,000 workers in Gaza were involved in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. These claims prompted numerous nations including the United States to cut off funding for UNRWA last year. The U.S. had been UNRWA’s biggest benefactor, providing $300-400 million annually to the lifesaving organization.
UNRWA fired nine employees in response to Israel’s claim, even as the agency admitted there was no evidence linking the staffers to October 7. Faced with this lack of evidence, the European Union and countries including Japan, Germany, Canada, and Australia reinstated funding for UNRWA. Last March, then-U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill prohibiting American funding for the agency.
Israeli lawmakers have also banned UNRWA from operating in Israel, severely hampering the agency’s ability to carry out its mission throughout Palestine, including in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to the most recent UNRWA situation report, at least 272 of the agency’s workers have been killed by Israeli forces, which since October 2023 have bombed numerous schools, shelters, and other facilities used by the agency.
William Deere, the director of UNRWA’s Washington, D.C. office, toldPBS earlier this week that “there is no alternative to UNRWA.”
“UNRWA performs a unique function in the U.N. system,” Deere explained. “We are a direct service provider. We run… a healthcare network, we run an education system, we provide relief and social services.”
As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said last month, “UNRWA has been carrying out activities in the occupied Palestinian territory for more than 70 years… and has thus accumulated unparalleled experience in providing assistance that is tailored to the specific needs of Palestine refugees.”
Trump’s executive order preceded his meeting with Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court after it issued arrest warrants for him and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The tribunal also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
The U.S. president’s directives also followed his January freeze on foreign aid to countries except for Israel and Egypt, and his plan to shut down the United States Agency for International Development.
This article and its headline have been updated to include Trump’s call for U.S. ownership of Gaza.
Nine countries including South Africa, Namibia, and Chile formed the Hague Group to hold Israel accountable for its crimes
On Friday, January 31, nine nations took coordinated action to form the Hague Group to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law in Palestine. Representatives from the governments of Belize, Bolivia, South Africa, Namibia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, and Senegal gathered in The Hague, in the Netherlands, to inaugurate the collective action.
Today, nine nations — collectively known as The Hague Group — gathered in The Hague to coordinate legal, diplomatic and economic measures against Israel’s violations of international law. pic.twitter.com/uP1UCMAr4x
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, also joined the representatives at the Hague. “One year after the [International Court of Justice] heard the South African application on the issue of genocide by Israel against the people of Palestine, [nine nations] have declared their support for the outcomes of that legal process,” Corbyn said. These nine nations “are determined to hold Israel to account, and all those nations that are continuing to supply weapons to Israel that are being used in the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Together, the nine nations intend to uphold international law in the face of Israel’s crimes. This is in relation to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, issued on January 26, March 28, and May 24 of last year. The Hague Group also declared its intention to prevent the transfer of arms to the Zionist state “in all cases where there is a clear risk that such arms and related items might be used to commit or facilitate violations of humanitarian law” and also prevent the docking of vessels “in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry military fuel and weaponry to Israel, which might be used to commit or facilitate violations of humanitarian law, of international human rights law, and of the prohibition on genocide in Palestine.” The nations referenced international action to implement an arms embargo against apartheid South Africa.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn explains why he’s at The Hague today as nine nations take co-ordinated action against Israel. pic.twitter.com/8lnOcRTXTw
“We will take further effective measures to end Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and remove obstacles to the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine,” read a joint statement issued by the representatives inaugurating the Hague Group. The representatives issued a call for other nations to join the Group “in the solemn commitment to an international order based on the rule of law and international law, which, together with the principles of justice, is essential for peaceful coexistence and cooperation among States.”
The intensive care unit of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip is shown on January 20, 2025, the day after a cease-fire deal took effect. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinian group Al-Haq outlined the “targeting of hospitals and health centers, the denial of adequate medical provisions into and around the Gaza Strip, and the abduction, torture, and killing of medical personnel.”
Less than a week into a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq on Thursday released a report detailing how “Israel has systematically targeted and attacked the healthcare system to the point of its collapse in a campaign of genocide.”
“The Israeli occupying forces’ (IOF) targeting of hospitals and health centers, the denial of adequate medical provisions into and around the Gaza Strip, and the abduction, torture, and killing of medical personnel is evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent to: (i) inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and (ii) impose measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in the Gaza Strip,” states the 116-page report.
“The concerted policy to destroy the healthcare system in Gaza is directly and causally linked to statements made by Israeli officials,” the document continues, offering various examples and highlighting how it wasn’t just hospitals—Israel also attacked “civilian residences, schools, shelters, mosques, churches, and other protected areas under international humanitarian law.”
The report argues that “Israel’s systematic campaign against Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure as a whole is exemplified by the targeted destruction of al-Shifa Hospital,” which is the largest hospital in the occupied Palestinian territory and “older than Israel.” The document also addresses Israel’s attacks on Adwan, al-Amal, al-Aqsa, al-Awda, Indonesian, Kamal, and Nasser hospitals.
Along with offering a summary of facts and legal analysis of “Israel’s systematic attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system as acts of genocide,” war crimes, and violations of international humanitarian law, the publication features recommendations for other countries and blocs, international tribunals, U.N. experts, companies, and healthcare professionals.
Al-Haq called on the international community to “name and condemn Israel’s ongoing genocide,” impose an arms embargo, support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and demand the release of Palestinian political prisoners and those who have been arbitrarily detained by Israel, including healthcare workers.
The report was published as the death toll in Gaza continues to grow, as displaced residents of the Palestinian enclave return to the remnants of their homes and communities decimated by more than 15 months of Israeli bombings and raids.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Thursday that the official death toll rose to 47,283, after 120 bodies “were recovered from under the rubble” in the past 24 hours, and 111,472 people have been injured. Global experts warn the true death toll is likely far higher.
Israel faces a genocide case led by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military assault and restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Al-Haq’s report notes both the ICC warrants and the ICJ case, urging other governments to formally support the latter effort.
Throughout the 15-month assault on Gaza, Israeli settlers and troops also targeted Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank—where Al-Haq is based. However, since the cease-fire took effect Sunday, attacks in the West Bank have sparked fresh alarm.
In addition to pushing for the investigation of Israel’s assault on Gaza, the new report urges a U.N. commission to probe “genocidal acts in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including but not limited to killings of Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people.”
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREGenocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
