British soldiers who were tracking Israeli settler violence and protecting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been ordered to leave the country.
The team’s official role is to provide support for the Palestinian Authority which provides policing and security for the territory under the Oslo Accords.
However, the team now functions as the “eyes and ears” for the West the Palestinian territory, sending back details about the increasingly violent Israeli settlers.
The British Support Team (BST), a group of about 10 military staff based in the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, was set to quadruple in size in the coming weeks.
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However, the BST was given seven days to leave by the Israeli Government in part of its response to Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s sanctions on businesses in the occupied West Bank.
A small British military and diplomatic contingent helping support the Gaza ceasefire at the international headquarters in Kiryat Gat was also expelled by Israel.
Announcing the ban, Mr Miliband said a “new approach” was necessary because plans for the E1 development in the West Bank would render a two-state solution “unviable” by “cutting through the heart of Palestine”.
He said more settlements had been approved under the four years of Mr Netanyahu’s government than in the previous 20 years and settler terrorism in the West Bank was “rampant”, accusing the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to “ethnic cleansing”.
The move drew swift condemnation from Israel, whose foreign minister Gideon Saar announced the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem and banned 11 MPs, including all six Green Party MPs and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, from entering the country.
Whitehall sources have now suggested Israel had been spying on British soldiers and was actively looking for an excuse to expel them from the region.
Israeli operatives also allegedly intercepted communications between British forces on a regular basis.
A source told The Telegraph: “The Israelis listen to everything, particularly the reports collated and coming out of the team about settler violence and conditions in the West Bank…It’s not surprising they’re being told to leave.”
The Israeli government has condemned settler violence in the occupied West Bank, however perpetrators are rarely arrested and even less frequently prosecuted.
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A Bedouin family in Taybeh, the last mainly Christian town in the West Bank was pinned down by Jewish settlers for more than an hour.
Despite an order from the Israeli Defence Forces, attacks by the settlers have continued uninterrupted and they are increasingly surrounded by illegal outposts.
A Ministry of Defence source said: “The BST provides the best information on what is going in the West Bank in a security sense to the international community…closing it down is an absolute gift to the Israelis because it closes the eyes and ears of what’s going on there.”
GB News has contacted the Ministry of Defence and the Israeli government for comment.
Israel-UK relations have become increasingly strained in recent years, with London criticising Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the expansion of West Bank settlements and rising settler attacks on Palestinians.
Britain in 2025 joined other countries to recognise a Palestinian state as a means to promote the two-state solution, and had already issued sanctions over West Bank settlements in June.
While it was met with swift condemnation from Chief Rabbi Sir Epharim Mirvis, British Jewish organisation Yachad voiced support for Labour’s announcement, describing it as an “important and necessary development”.
It recognised the “many different views in our community on this issue” but said it is clear the announcement “is not anti-Israel, and it is certainly not antisemitic.”
They added: “It is also not a boycott of Israel and it is not directed at all Israelis. It draws a clear line between sovereign Israel and the occupation.”
Palestinians in the West Bank have faced a surge in settler violence while their freedoms have been increasingly curtailed under military occupation since Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, came to power in late 2022.
Yasser Alkam, a Palestinian American and a municipality spokesman has warned there are “thousands” of settlers carrying out violence against Palestinians.
He told reporters: “The United States does have the power to pressure Israel at least arrest these settlers, which are known to the authorities.
“They can identify them, one by one, and arrest them, if they want to, with the right amount of pressure from the United States embassy and the United States administration.”
At least six Palestinian Americans have been killed in the West Bank either by the Israeli military or settlers since 2024.
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