The petition launched by Declassified UK and International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) calls on the British Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary to launch investigations and legal proceedings to determine the involvement of approximately 2,000 British citizens—who are active-duty soldiers in the Israeli army—in war crimes committed in Gaza.
An independent media outlet that investigates human rights violations and the environmental impacts of the activities of British and multinational armed forces and intelligence services, Declassified UK published “declassified data” in February 2025 showing the large number of people of various nationalities with dual or multiple citizenship—including Israeli citizenship—serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) . The list of approximately 50,000 soldiers also includes many—specifically 928—Italians.
In particular, based on documentation examined by analysts at the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and its own reporters,, the investigation by Declassified UK had shown that in the period following October 7, 2023, of the more than 2,000 British citizens with Israeli citizenship, many traveled to Israel and quite a few of them to Gaza. For example, Londoner Sam Sank, who between December 2023 and January 2024 filmed himself while serving as an operational staff sergeant ‘on the front lines’ and told the Times</ em>, he stated that in his unit of the Israel Defense Forces there was a Scotsman and that, like them, “hundreds, if not thousands, of other Britons are fighting in Israel.”
In an open letter addressed to British government ministers Shabana Mahmood and Yvette Cooper—respectively Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary—the text of which was drafted by lawyers from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) and editors of Declassified UK, already signed by more than 24,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, journalists, and British citizens, and for which the campaign No One Wants to Live Next Door to a War Criminal was launched to gather signatures.