If a British citizen dies in Israel, how is the body repatriated to the UK?

Families in Manchester and Golders Green usually assume the hard part is Israel. It is not. The Israeli side of a repatriation is a well-worn commercial process that a licensed agent runs in under a week. The part that surprises British families is what happens after the aircraft lands, because English law can take an interest in a death that occurred 2,000 miles away.

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Detailed Answer

On the Israeli side the sequence rarely varies. An official death certificate (תעודת פטירה) is issued, and where the death was sudden or unattended the National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir may examine the body first, with any autopsy governed by the Anatomy and Pathology Law 1953 and open to family objection on religious grounds. A licensed repatriation agent then embalms the deceased with Ministry of Health approval and places them in a hermetically sealed, metal-lined casket, which the Public Health (re-interment) Rules 1941 require for any body leaving the country, and applies for the export permit. The death certificate is apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so it will be accepted in the United Kingdom, both countries being parties to the Hague Apostille Convention 1961. The casket flies as air cargo out of Ben Gurion with the export permit, the embalming certificate and a free-from-infection certificate travelling with it. The UK issues no mortuary passport and asks for none.

The British end is where a family should plan rather than assume. England and Wales do not register a death that happened abroad, so there will never be a UK death certificate; the Israeli certificate with a certified English translation is the document that HM Passport Office, the banks and the Probate Registry will work from. More consequentially, under Section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 a senior coroner has a duty to investigate when a body is within their area and the death was violent or unnatural, or its cause is unknown. A road accident on Route 1 or an unexplained death in a Tel Aviv hotel can therefore open an English inquest once the body arrives, and the coroner, not the family, then controls when the funeral proceeds. Cremation carries its own gate: the ordinary medical cremation forms cannot exist for a death abroad, so the crematorium will require either a Form Cremation 6 from the coroner or an authorisation to cremate issued by the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice under the Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008. Burial needs no such permission. Scotland runs a separate system through the procurator fiscal, and Northern Ireland through its own coroners service, so the answer changes with the destination within the UK.

In Practice: Under the Public Health (re-interment) Rules 1941 a body leaves Israel only in a sealed, metal-lined casket prepared with Ministry of Health approval, alongside an export permit, and the death certificate is apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for roughly NIS 41, with a notarial English translation from about NIS 251 for the first hundred words. The Israeli chain typically runs 5 to 7 business days, and the agent, casket, documentation and air cargo to London commonly total NIS 20,000 to NIS 40,000. Add 2 to 6 weeks if a coroner opens an investigation under Section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, and allow a further working week where cremation requires a Form Cremation 6 or a Ministry of Justice authorisation.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The death was sudden, violent or unexplained. The Israeli forensic institute and an English coroner may both want the body, and an autopsy objection in Israel has to be raised immediately because it cannot be reversed once the examination begins.
• The family intends to cremate. Jewish burial societies in Israel will not assist with a cremation route, the English authorisation is a separate application, and families who assume the crematorium can proceed on Israeli paperwork alone lose weeks.
• The deceased owned Israeli assets. Repatriation and the estate are separate files, but a death in Israel almost always produces an Israeli succession application, and identifying that early avoids a second process months later. Our guide to repatriating a body from Israel covers the logistics in full.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Where a death in Israel involves a forensic examination, an insurer or Israeli property, the funeral logistics and the legal file are best handled together rather than in sequence.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.