ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA, 17 Feb. - (ANA) - More than 50,000 foreign nationals have served in the Israeli army as of March 2025, including at least 2,069 British nationals.

 

A report  by investigative outlet Declassified UK has found that 50,632 soldiers serving in the Israeli army hold foreign nationalities in addition to their Israeli citizenship.

 

An additional 4,440 soldiers have been found to hold two foreign nationalities on top of their Israeli one, alongside 162 other members having three foreign citizenships.

 

The disclosure comes following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request issued in March last year to the Israeli army by the NGO Hatzlacha, an organisation seeking to promote transparency in Israel.

 

The country found to have the most nationals serving in the Israeli army was the United States, which has 12,135 dual US-Israeli nationals and 1,207 other soldiers who hold American, Israeli and a third citizenship serving for Israel’s military in Gaza.

 

 

France was found to have the second greatest number of nationals serving in the Israeli army, totalling 6,464 individuals. Russian nationals in the Israeli military amounted to 5,169.

 

The list also included soldiers with nationalities from Germany, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Ethiopia, Canada, Hungary and Italy among other countries.

 

Dozens of Israeli soldiers also have Arab nationalities.

 

These include 14 soldiers with Yemeni nationality, 15 others with Tunisian citizenship, six Jordanian nationals, five Iraqi citizens, four with Lebanese citizenship, three holding Syrian nationalities, and one Algerian citizen.

 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is currently reviewing a genocide case against Israel, has warned states not to assist Israel in war crimes.

 

Lawyers have called for governments to investigate the actions of their nationals in Gaza and prosecute them under international law.

 

 

British participation in Israel’s war on Gaza

 

 

The findings show 1,686 British-Israeli nationals and a further 383 people with British, Israeli, and a third nationality have served in the Israeli military during the war on Gaza that began in October 2023.

 

The UK Foreign Office said it does not collect information on the number of its nationals within Israeli army ranks, according to Declassified UK.

 

The British government, however, has faced scrutiny as identities of UK nationals emerged over the course of the genocidal war in which they were seen committing acts that legal experts have argued could amount to war crimes.

 

Levi Simon, a dual British Israeli national, was identified after posting videos on his social media account rifling through drawers of Palestinian women’s underwear in Gaza homes that had been abandoned.

 

Londoner Sam Sank was another dual national who filmed himself fighting for the Israeli military in Gaza between December 2023 and January 2024. In an interview with The Times, Sank said he believed there were "hundreds, if not thousands, more Britons fighting in Israel".

 

"There must be no impunity where credible evidence links British nationals to grave breaches of international law", Paul Heron, a lawyer at the Public Interest Law Centre, told Declassified UK.

 

"Where dual nationals have served in units implicated in atrocities, the authorities must investigate promptly and, where the evidence meets the threshold, pursue arrest and prosecution like any other serious crime," he added.

 

Prior data released by the Israeli Knesset showed how 54 British nationals were among the approximately 3,000 so-called ‘lone soldiers’ serving in the Israeli army without holding Israeli citizenship.

 

An investigation by The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed previously found that young people in the West had been recruited to serve in the Israeli military.

 

The UK’s Metropolitan Police previously received a complaint against ten British nationals serving in the ranks of the Israeli army, accusing them of "targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, including by sniper fire, and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas". - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/17 February 2026  - - -