In this article:
- Why the claim that Israel has fallen short of British military standards is disputed by experienced military professionals.
- How the IDF’s conduct in Gaza compares with the challenges faced by other Western militaries in urban warfare.
- Why military experts argue that the lessons of Gaza should be studied by Western armed forces.
When the UK’s newly appointed Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, claimed in July that Israel had “fallen short” of the military standards expected by the United Kingdom, he made one of the most serious criticisms of the Israel Defense Forces ever levelled by a British Defence Secretary. But who should we believe on Gaza: politicians or military experts?
No one should minimise the terrible human cost of war. However, acknowledging suffering is not the same as concluding that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have failed to meet the standards of a professional military.
What is striking is that many of the military professionals best qualified to assess modern warfare, including former British commanders, senior NATO officers and internationally recognised urban warfare experts, have reached conclusions that differ sharply from the Defence Secretary’s assessment. Their voices deserve to be heard before such sweeping judgements are accepted as fact.
Colonel Richard Kemp, retired commander of British forces in Afghanistan, rejected Streeting’s claim, arguing that the IDF had “exceeded what any other army could do in Gaza” and had taken greater precautions to protect civilians than any comparable military.
“If he [Streeting] is talking about minimising harm to non-combatants, they also exceeded all other armies’ precautions. I witnessed it first hand; he did not and nor did any of his staff or advisers.”
Kemp also criticised the lack of detail behind Streeting’s statement:
“Nowhere in this article has Mr Streeting been quoted as specifying how Israel fell short. Such offhand and unsubstantiated statements fuel Jew hatred in this country and we’ve seen the consequences of that. Politicians need to avoid making incendiary comments they can’t back up.”
In 2024, Kemp told the Jerusalem Post: “An army intent on genocide would want to maximise civilian deaths, through starvation, deprivation of water, or direct killing. The IDF is doing the opposite.”
Addressing casualty figures frequently cited by critics, Kemp argued that Hamas had historically exaggerated death figures in previous conflicts and that casualty statistics should be treated with caution. He noted that, even accepting Hamas figures, the civilian-to-combatant ratio in Gaza was lower than in several other recent conflicts.
“In Iraq, the US and allies killed three civilians for every combatant. In Afghanistan, it was five to one. In Gaza, it’s less than one to one,” Kemp stated.
General Sir John McColl, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and a British Army officer with 38 years’ service, also challenged the suggestion that the IDF had failed to meet Western military standards.
Writing in The Times following a visit to Israel, McColl stated that: “The IDF’s operations and rules of engagement were rigorous compared to the British Army and our Western allies.”
He added: “War is terrible, but sometimes necessary. And Israeli soldiers are fighting in conditions of extraordinary complexity and risk. It’s time for the world to have its eyes opened to that.”
International law expert Natasha Hausdorff also challenged Streeting’s assertion, arguing that it ignored the assessments of experienced military professionals.
“I’ll take General Sir John McColl’s 53 years’ military experience, and his observations from on the ground in Gaza, over a politician’s unfounded allegations, any day of the week.”
Military experts do more than challenge criticism of Israel; they increasingly argue that Western armed forces have much to learn from the IDF’s experience in Gaza.
Andrew Fox, a retired British Army officer, explored this in his Henry Jackson Society paper Tactical Lessons from Gaza, arguing that NATO forces should carefully study the lessons emerging from the conflict.
Fox warned: “Gaza is now discussed in the West almost exclusively through allegations: war crimes, even genocide. Those are serious claims that require evidence, investigation, and legal judgement. These concepts are not well served by social media verdicts.”
He continued: “Democracies also have a duty that is less emotionally satisfying and more urgent: to learn from what happened militarily because our own forces could be sent into the next city fight with the same cameras, the same civilian density, and the same enemy tactics.”
That assessment is echoed by John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and a leading expert on urban warfare.
Writing about the Gaza conflict, Spencer stated: “Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that’s fought an urban war.”
Israel maintains that its operations are conducted in accordance with the laws of armed conflict, employing advance warnings, evacuation notices, humanitarian corridors, intelligence-led targeting and legal oversight. Whether individual actions complied with those standards should always be investigated. But isolated allegations are not the same as evidence that the IDF as an institution has abandoned the standards expected of a democratic military.
If the British Government wishes to argue that Israel has failed to meet British military standards, it should identify precisely which standards have been breached and present the military evidence supporting that conclusion. It is not enough simply to make the assertion.
Ultimately, Israel should be judged by the same standards as every other democracy at war. That judgement should rest on evidence, military expertise and the laws of armed conflict, not political rhetoric or media narratives. If Britain is to assess Israel’s conduct, it should first listen to those who understand modern warfare best.
References
Fox, A. (2025) Tactical Lessons from Gaza: What the West Can Learn from the Israel-Hamas War. London: Henry Jackson Society.
Jerusalem Post (2024) ‘Israel minimizes civilian casualties more than anyone in history’ (Richard Kemp interview).
Jerusalem Post (2026) ‘UK defence chief says Israel “fallen short” of military standards in Gaza war.’
McColl, J. (2024) ‘I fought in Iraq – I know Israel’s doing all it can to save civilians’, The Times.
Spencer, J. (2024) ‘Israel Implemented More Measures to Prevent Civilian Casualties Than Any Other Nation in History’, Newsweek, 31 January 2024.
