Three lawyers, two Belgians and one Jordanian, on May 26, sent a letter to Fatou Bensouda, Attorney General at the International Criminal Court (ICC), in order to submit a complaint alleging war crimes and crimes against the International Criminal Court (ICC). humanity committed in connection with Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Mes Julie Goffin, Georges-Henri Beauthier and Khaled Al Shouli act on behalf of a Palestinian from Gaza, Mohammad Al-Tanani, survivor of a family whose six members – and among them four young children – perished in the bombing of their building , on May 13, in the area of Sheikh Zayed, a border residential area.
The complaint targets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as three soldiers: Chief of Staff Aviv Kokhavi, Defense Army Colonel Eliezer Toledano and Colonel Amikam Norkin.
A document of about twenty pages was sent to Mr.me Bensouda. Read by The world, it is supplemented by some fifty documents, including the reports of forensic pathologists and photos of the severely mutilated bodies of the victims. The three lawyers explain that in their view, the deaths of Raafat Al-Tanani, 40, his pregnant wife Raya, 36, and their four children aged 3, 4, 5 and 8 fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC for the situation in Palestine. The Attorney General also confirmed, on March 3, the opening of an investigation into the events in Gaza in 2014, during another conflict between Israel and Hamas. Israel is not a member of the ICC and opposes any investigation.
“Generalized and systematic” attacks
On May 13, Israeli forces carried out 120 raids and fired 30 rockets at Sheikh Zayed’s neighborhood, lawyers say. Nine homes housing 86 people were destroyed. The Al-Tanani family was decimated, only the grandfather having survived; seven other people were not found, 33 were injured.
In their analysis, the three jurists believe that, contrary to its assertions, the Israeli government carried out attacks “Generalized and systematic” against the Palestinian civilian population. The number of victims recorded is 254 Palestinians, including 65 children, and 12 Israelis.
Targeting Palestinian civilians
It was impossible for the political and military leaders concerned to ignore that the area where these Palestinians lived was occupied by civilians, write the three jurists. And “The persistence of the attacks and Mr. Netanyahu’s promise to intensify them, despite the human damage caused to the civilian population, clearly reveals Israel’s intention to commit such crimes.”
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