British Taxpayers Subsidized PTSD Therapy for Israeli Soldiers Who Fought in Gaza

British taxpayers have effectively subsidized therapy for Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza, through a Gift Aid arrangement that appears to sit uneasily with UK charity law.

An investigation by Declassified UK found that a British charity called UK Toremet channeled donations to the Yahalom Foundation, an Israeli veterans organization tied to the IDF's Yahalom combat engineering unit. Because the UK government adds 25% on top of Gift Aid-eligible donations, British taxpayers ended up covering a share of the bill.

Emails obtained by Declassified show the Yahalom Foundation instructing British donors to route their contributions through UK Toremet, describing it as its "registered partner platform in the UK." The foundation told supporters that using Toremet would ensure "full tax recognition and enabled Gift Aid," and that "100% of your gift is routed directly to Yahalom to support our core mission."

Among the fundraising targets British donors were pointed toward: a £5,000 "therapeutic healing journey" for soldiers returning from Gaza, individual psychological treatments, and a £100,000 memorial hall for fallen Israeli soldiers.

What Yahalom actually does

Yahalom is not a generic veterans' club. It is the IDF's elite combat engineering unit, trained in explosives and what the military calls "destroying terror tunnels." An IDF spokesperson has said the unit is "deployed everywhere in the Gaza Strip," and one of its own soldiers has spoken publicly about blowing up buildings and operating inside Palestinian hospitals during the war. Declassified describes the unit as having played a key role in the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

A regulator with a clear rule, and a charity disputing its own partner's wording

The Charity Commission has previously stated plainly: "It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military."

Confronted by Declassified, UK Toremet confirmed it had given money to the Yahalom Foundation for "the provision of PTSD treatment to the association's beneficiaries," and argued that mental health treatment for individuals counts as welfare and medical relief, charitable under English law. It said its monitoring had confirmed funds were applied "exclusively to the restricted purpose for which they were given."

But Toremet's account clashes with the Yahalom Foundation's own description of the relationship. Toremet denied being the foundation's "partner platform," calling that description "not accurate" and saying it would raise the wording with the foundation. It also characterized the Yahalom Foundation as merely an "alumni association" for veterans, a claim contradicted by the foundation's own website, which says it serves soldiers "who have served and are currently serving."

Declassified also found records from two years ago showing British donations funding equipment for serving Israeli soldiers, though it remains unclear whether Gift Aid was applied to those donations.

Part of a wider pattern

The findings land days after the Charity Commission announced an inquiry into eight British charities operating in illegal Israeli settlements, examining whether their funds are being used for genuine charitable purposes. Asked whether it is among the charities under scrutiny, UK Toremet declined to say.

The episode adds to a growing list of cases in which UK charitable infrastructure, and by extension British public money, has been used to support Israeli military-linked causes, often through arrangements that regulators and watchdogs have struggled to fully unpick.