Met Police reopens investigation into Britons in the IDF

JVL Introduction

In February Declassified reported that Over 2,000 Britons served for Israel amid Gaza genocide. London’s police began investigating allegations of war crimes committed by ten of them last year  but earlier this year decided not to continue.

But something has changed and “the Metropolitan Police Service has reversed its decision to close a war crimes probe into UK nationals who fought for Israel amid the Gaza genocide” This is, however, only into four individuals out of the 2,000 known to have fought in Gaza since October 2023.

Nonetheless, this reversal of the earlier decision is welcomed by human rights lawyers and organisations. It took tenacity, especially of British-Palestinian human rights campaigner Lubna Speitan, who argued for a judicial review of what the Met police had (not) done; her lawyers said that “the Met had wrongly applied its own policy and failed to take into account relevant considerations such as the full range of evidential pathways available for an investigation.” 

This article was originally published by Declassified on Thu 23 Jul 2026. Read the original here.