The HRF says it has compiled and submitted video and photographic evidence to the relevant international legal bodies, including the ICC [GETTY]
A pro-Palestine NGO filed a complaint on Thursday with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against an Israeli rabbi soldier for alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s war on the enclave.
Brussel-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) said it filed a complaint against Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, an Israeli soldier in the Givati Brigade, for “committing grave war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Israeli military campaign in Gaza”.
In a statement, the NGO said: “Zarbiv’s crimes are well-documented through his own public admissions and video evidence.”
“His own public statements and videos leave no doubt about his role in the mass destruction and targeting of civilians,” the statement said.
In a televised interview with IsraeliTV on Wednesday, the Rabbi spoke about destroying 50 buildings a week in the Gaza Strip, including private homes, schools, hospitals, and aid facilities.
He confirmed the Givati Brigade’s systematic targeting of civilian areas, which rendered entire towns uninhabitable.
“In Rafah, they [the Palestinians] have nothing to return to, and in Jabalia, there’s nothing to return to,” he said while bragging about using a D9 bulldozer to destroy multi-storey buildings.
“There’s no Jabalia, it was all destroyed. Everything, building after building. They’re the Palestinians] returning to nowhere, they have nothing, nothing, no home, nothing. They won’t know where their home was” he added.
HRF also said the interview had shown the Rabbi publicly inciting violence and hatred, including endorsing Palestinian civilians being killed and obliterating their communities.
The foundation further supplied video evidence from 7 February 2024 showing Zarbiv and his team throwing hand grenades and firing at unarmed civilians in Khan Younis.
The NGO said the Rabbi’s alleged crimes breach the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and violate the Rome Statute.
“It is imperative that Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv is apprehended and prosecuted without delay. His actions, and the impunity that often shields perpetrators of such crimes, cannot go unchallenged,” HRF said in its statement.
Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip has destroyed over 60,000 structures across the strip, destroying nine in 10 homes.
Since a fragile ceasefire and captive exchange deal was agreed between Israel and Hamas on 19 January, Palestinians have been steadily returning to their homes to find mass destruction. Estimates from rights groups state it could take a decade to rebuild infrastructure in Gaza.Â
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch carried out investigations which had determined that Israel was carrying out a genocide in Gaza.