Britain trained Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza

Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza have been trained at Britain’s prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS), Declassified can reveal.

The information comes in a leaked list of RCDS alumni which was published by a file-sharing website, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS).

The soldiers trained at RCDS include Colonel Yaniv Asor, the current chief of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Southern Command who oversees military operations in Gaza.

Asor was recently accused by the head of the Israeli air force of responsibility for mass civilian casualties in Gaza.

The involvement of UK-trained officers in Gaza raises further concerns about British complicity in the genocide, as well as the effectiveness of the college’s human rights training.

The revelation comes as the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announces that Israeli soldiers will no longer be allowed to train at the RCDS.

Declassified first exposed how Israeli soldiers had been training at the RCDS in July, revealing how at least two Israeli colonels had graduated from the college since October 2023.

It has now been reported that the RCDS will not accept students from Israel from next year.

However, Declassified understands that Israeli military officers currently training in the UK will be allowed to complete their courses, with as many as four IDF soldiers still in Britain.

Charlie Herbert, a retired British army general, told Declassified: “That it has taken so long to bar IDF officers from the prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies is a disgrace.

“Even now, it is not sufficient to ban them from 2026. Instead all IDF personnel currently studying or training at UK military establishments should be expelled immediately.

“The UK government should be boycotting all such relationships with this Israeli government. Keir Starmer seems determined to drag the country into a level of complicity that will shame us for decades”.

Israeli soldiers in Britain

The list of Israeli alumni from the RCDS is contained in an email sent from Lucy Woods, a former defence officer in the British embassy in Tel Aviv.

It was delivered on 17 March 2019 to an Israeli official named Tobias Siegal, who is now the country’s emissary in Australia.

“Here is the list of IDF and RCDS alumni invited… to our RCDS reception on 23 May”, wrote Woods.

What follows is a long list of Israeli military figures who have taken courses at the RCDS, many of whom are now directing operations or fighting in Gaza.

At the top of the list is Colonel Yaniv Asor, who assumed command of the IDF Southern Command in March 2025.

Asor was reportedly in the chain of command of Israeli officers responsible for the bombing of Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis last month.

The IDF said the “address” for managing the attack “would have been… Asor, although different levels of officials approve targets of varying levels of sensitivity”.

Tomer Bar, the commander of the Israeli air force, recently accused Asor “of a lack of professionalism leading to excessive civilian casualties”.

Asor responded, “You, over there in Tel Aviv, are out of touch with the war front”.

Combat operations

The Israeli defence ministry’s current director-general, Amir Baram, also trained at the RCDS. He was involved in a combat operation in Gaza in January 2024.

Major General Itai Veruv, another RCDS graduate, is now the commander of the IDF’s depth corps which is tasked with coordinating operations deep in enemy territory.

Other RCDS graduates include Hidai Zilberman, a former IDF spokesperson and now head of its planning directorate, and Brigadier General Harel Knafo, who served as the “Commander of the Information Operation of the Southern Command” after 7 October.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told Declassified: “UK military educational courses have long been open to personnel from a wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasising compliance with international humanitarian law.

“However, the Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong. There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza”.

Human rights

Another Israeli graduate of the RCDS, Effie Eitam, is a former Israeli politician and commander of the IDF’s 91st Division who told his troops in February 1988 to beat a Palestinian to death.

IDF soldiers subsequently testified that Eitam had ordered and participated in the beatings, with the army finding his “violent behaviour became the norm, and was taken as an example by those under his command”.

Eitam would go on to call Palestinians “creatures who came out of the depths of darkness” who could be killed because of “the evil in their heads”.

Established in 1927 as the Imperial Defence College, the RCDS in Belgravia is one of Britain’s most eminent military academies.

From its elegant Georgian building ringed by embassies, the college organises training for “rising stars” among the officer class from the UK and abroad.

While Sandhurst teaches junior army officers, the RCDS mentors mid-ranking troops who have ambitions to climb the chain of command, awarding them a post-graduate certificate in international security studies.

The college describes itself as “a world-renowned institution committed to developing strategic thinkers… who have the potential to reach the highest ranks”.

Other Israeli soldiers have trained at the Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC) in Shrivenham in Oxfordshire, including the current IDF spokesperson, Efraim “Effi” Defrin.