Hind Rajab Foundation files complaint to the ICC against Israeli brigadier general
The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Brigadier General Yehuda Vahn.
HRF, which was formed in 2024, has pulled together lawyers and activists from around the world to prepare cases against Israeli soldiers based on social media content shared by the soldiers themselves.
HRF says Vach was in command of the “establishment and enforcement of an unlawful ‘kill zone’ in the Netzarim Corridor, a zone it said is characterised by ‘the deliberate targeting of civilians — particularly children — by sniper teams and mobile armoured patrols operating with impunity under Vach’s orders”.
“The complaint was based on powers of attorney obtained from the families of two Palestinian children who were summarily executed by Vach’s troops”, HRF said in a statement.
Is Germany missing in action on holding Israel accountable?
EU leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of captives, but they have stopped short of sanctioning Israel. Germany is the largest and most influential of a five-country bloc that is leading EU policy on this, according to Claudio Francavilla, the Brussels-based associate EU director at Human Rights Watch.
He told Al Jazeera Germany has been clear that the protection of Israel and its existence — its raison d’etat — is one of the principles at the foundation of the German state. German politicians are willing to accept blame for not moving against Israel over Gaza, seeing it as a “tiny fraction of the suffering that they inflicted on the Jewish people during the Holocaust”.
But Germany is also committed to international law, Francavilla said, and is “missing in action when it comes to their obligations”. He pointed to the UN Genocide Convention, which requires all parties to “employ all reasonable means to stop or prevent a genocide when it’s unfolding,” not only after a final legal determination.
“By protecting Israel from any form of accountability, they are condemning the Palestinians to suffer everything that they’ve been going through,” he said.
