Senior figures within the United Kingdom’s defence establishment have made numerous unpublicised and secret visits to Israel since 7 October 2023, British government data has revealed.

The trips reportedly include that of the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, who had visited Israel on 21 January 2024 and met with his Israeli counterpart, Herzi Halevi “to discuss future operations in the region”.
General Charles Stickland, the Chief of Joint Operations at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters – responsible “for the command and integration of UK global operations” – also visited Israel on 18 March 2024, under what the British government simply referred to in documents as “MoD Directed attendance at meetings to be held in Tel Aviv”. That same day, the MoD’s Director-General for Security Policy, Paul Wyatt, was also visiting Israel.
Other senior UK defence figures who have made the unpublicised trips to Israel include the head of the UK’s Strategic Command, James Hockenhull, who reportedly subtly visited Tel Aviv for a “UK-Israel bilateral” back on 28 December 2023.
The head of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Air Chief Marshal, Sir Richard Knighton, also made a visit on 9 January 2024 for undeclared purposes. Although the topic of that trip remains unspecified, the RAF’s operations in the Middle East have since dramatically increased, with the Air Force conducting hundreds of flights over the Gaza Strip to gather intelligence to share with Israeli Occupation forces.
According to an MoD spokesperson quoted by the outlet, the UK and its allies made efforts “to reach a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict in Gaza”, hence why “senior defence officials have visited Israel for routine diplomatic visits”. They claimed that the “Discussions included the UK calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the need for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law while recognising Israel’s right to security.”