JERUSALEM – Israel demands a change in British law after a senior Israeli army officer cancelled a trip to the Great Britain fearing he would be charged with war crimes.

Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, who headed army units in the Gaza Strip until Israel ended its occupation of the territory in August, had been due to spend the summer at the Royal College of Defense Studies in London.

But he shelved the trip after taking legal advice that he risked being served with an arrest warrant. The affair prompted an angry response from Israel’s defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, who told the Israeli media that General Kochavi had “the full support of Israel”.

He also called on “countries that suffer from terrorism at home” not to take legal action against “soldiers and officers who acted legally against vicious and atrocious terror”.

General Kochavi, who was the last Israeli soldier to leave the Gaza Strip and officially closed the gate to settlements there behind him, could face arrest in Britain under a private war crimes prosecution.

Last September, another senior Israeli army officer was forced to stay on his plane at Heathrow when he heard that he would be arrested after passing through passport control. Major General Doron Almog flew back to Tel Aviv after the Israeli Ambassador in London told him en route that a campaign group had filed charges against him over the destruction of Palestinian homes.

Other Israeli army officers, including now comatose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former air force chief Dan Halutz, have also faced the prospect of war crimes charges filed against them in Europe.

The case against General Halutz relates to the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh Shehada in August 2002, during which an Israeli warplane dropped a one ton bomb on the apartment building where Shehada was staying, killing him – but also 14 bystanders.