Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, when his Department plans to respond to the correspondence of 5 December 2023 from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.

The FCDO acknowledges receipt of this letter and will be issuing a response shortly.

Regarding the issue of British citizens going to fight in the conflict, Section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 makes it an offence for a British subject to enlist in the military of a foreign state at war with another foreign state with which the UK is at peace. However, that prohibition does not extend to enlistment in a foreign government's forces which are engaged in a civil war or are combating terrorism or internal uprisings. The Occupied Palestinian Territories are not currently recognised as a state by the UK. It is the UK government's longstanding position that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and that Israel is an occupying power under that convention. The 1870 Act therefore does not apply in this instance.