FORMER Israeli top military commander General Aviv Kohavi held private meetings with British news editors one month after October 7, a Declassified investigation revealed yesterday.

Mr Kohavi met with Guardian editor Katherine Viner, BBC’s director of news content Richard Burgess and Financial Times editor Roula Khala.

Meetings were also scheduled with Sky News chairman David Rhodes and then-shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.

The details emerged from planning documents for the trip, obtained through a freedom of information request by lawyer Elad Man.

Declassified cited documents saying that the trip was designed to exploit a perceived “reversal in the attitude of Western countries toward Israel [in light of] the severity of the events … of October 7.”

A BBC spokesperson told Declassified that Mr Burgess met Mr Kohavi with other journalists who were “able to question him on the war in Gaza and the IDF’s tactics.”

The Guardian said that the meeting was “not an endorsement, but part of responsible journalism,” but failed to detail what was discussed.

The FT said Mr Kohavi accompanied Israel’s ambassador to Britain to a meeting at their London office “conducted by a group of journalists who cover events in the Middle East.”