Declassified UK: Tip of the iceberg?

Posted: 16th October 2026

Hamza Yusuf

Regular Contributor
Declassified UK

On Tuesday, we revealed the identity of a British national who served with the Israeli military in Gaza and may have participated in war crimes.

The months-long investigation began after we were handed images of a man in his mid-20s from Manchester, posing in front of a burning school in Gaza.

It was a UN school that Israel attacked and subsequently occupied around December 2023.

We established that the man, Jonathan Burman, had served in an Israeli military unit which repeatedly destroyed residential buildings in Gaza  acts that may constitute war crimes.

Other photographs uploaded to his private Instagram account showed him posing in military uniform, surrounded by widespread rubble and destruction, alongside smiling fellow soldiers.

A former Israeli soldier who served in Burman’s battalion before leaving Gaza described a culture of impunity within the Israeli military. He characterised its actions as an “absolute apocalypse”, describing how soldiers could burn down Palestinian homes without facing any consequences.

Therefore, the significance of our investigation cannot be overstated.

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A UN commission stated any Israeli soldier who fought in Gaza after October 2023 should be considered a war crimes suspect.

We previously uncovered that there were at least 2,000 British citizens who served in Israel’s army since its assault on Gaza began in 2023.

In the absence of accountability, earlier this year we launched a joint campaign with the International Centre of Justice for the Palestinians demanding an end to the impunity for British nationals who served in Gaza.

The supporting petition has been signed by almost 30,000 members of the public so far.

Simply put, nobody wants to live next door to a war criminal. 

Yet, to date, the British government does not collect data on its nationals serving in the Israeli military, nor are those returning from Israel routinely questioned about their activities in Gaza.

In the case of Jonathan Burman, our investigation revealed that he continued to travel freely to Britain after serving in the Israeli military, attending a Manchester United match at Old Trafford as recently as May this year.

The need for urgent action could hardly be clearer.

Despite the gravity of these revelations, our efforts have been met with near-total silence.

Since releasing our information on Burman, not a single mainstream British media outlet has picked up the story. Our previous investigations have been met with similar indifference, not only from the media but also from the government and the wider political establishment.

The contrast is striking: when it emerged a British national died fighting for Russia in August, the story attracted media attention and prompted stern condemnation from senior Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat.

If, like Burman, other British nationals were present at the scenes of possible war crimes in Gaza, it demands swift and decisive action.

This cannot be ignored any longer.

You can read the full investigation and watch the accompanying documentary here.

In solidarity,

Hamza.

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