Legal group files complaint in Italy against Israeli man for alleged Gaza war crimes

Hind Rajab Foundation, which has filed dozens of complaints against IDF soldiers abroad, claims visiting combat engineer’s posts show ‘public endorsement’ of demolition operations

The Hind Rajab Foundation said Friday that it filed a complaint in Rome accusing an Israeli man of war crimes in Gaza.

The man is believed to be in Italy, the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel group said, calling on Italian authorities to invoke their “universal jurisdiction over international crimes.”

The Brussels-based legal group, which is named for a 6-year-old Gazan girl killed in January 2024, has over the past two years filed dozens of criminal complaints against Israeli soldiers and officials who are visiting or stationed abroad.

In a statement Friday, the group claimed social media posts by the Israeli man, who was said to have served in the Combat Engineer Corps’ 749th Battalion, proved his complicity in alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.

The foundation said the posts feature “videos of demolitions and photographs of him handling detonation cables. These materials demonstrate not only his direct involvement in the demolition operations, but also his public endorsement of them.”

The statement did not say if Italian authorities were acting on the complaint, nor did any Italian media report on such action.

It was the fourth time the foundation has filed a war crimes complaint against an IDF soldier in Italy, according to the Walla news site.

Israel vehemently denies it has committed war crimes or genocide during the war that followed the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023. The IDF says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, stressing that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, which regularly uses social media posts by Israeli troops to file complaints about them abroad, has sparked alarm within Israel, prompting the IDF to create new privacy rules.

The group has spurred European authorities to detain a number of IDF soldiers, and forced a soldier visiting Brazil to flee back to Israel fearing arrest. However, it has been unsuccessful in court, and no soldier targeted by the group has been prosecuted for war crimes or any other alleged offenses committed in Gaza.