Hundreds of Britons have joined the Israel Defence Force, which is illegally occupying Palestinian land and has killed thousands of children in Gaza. Now lawyers are asking: Is their recruitment lawful?

People who fight for a foreign army are often viewed as mercenaries, and would meet the dictionary definition. However as Declassified has long reported, the UK has no effective anti-mercenary laws and tends to prosecute foreign fighters on an ad hoc basis, depending on whatever geo-political interests are being pursued by the government of the day.