Will Israeli soldiers be tried abroad?

Many Israeli soldiers they themselves published pictures and videos showing them committing crimes in Gaza. A Palestinian foundation wants them to be prosecuted for that - when they step outside Israel.

The Brussels-based foundation has found itself in the headlines for its specific mission – it wants to prosecute Israeli soldiers suspected of war crimes while they are on their way abroad.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli soldiers a year ago in the Gaza Strip, has been in the news for its most successful attempt yet to prosecute an Israeli soldier.

A judge in Brazil ordered federal police to investigate Yuval Vagdani, 21, who was vacationing there. Wagdani previously posted videos and pictures of himself destroying civilian buildings in Gaza, HRF said.

Then this HRF filed a complaint against General Ghassan Aliyan, an Israeli government official who is the head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. He is known for comments he made three days after a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1.200 people and kidnapped more than 250.

"Human animals must be treated as such," Aliyan said in a message to Gazans. "There will be no electricity and water." There will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell."

His statement is often cited by human rights organizations as evidence of Israel's alleged genocidal intent against the Palestinians. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli actions have killed more than 45.000 people in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, HRF announced that Allian was in Rome on a "secret visit" and asked the Italian authorities to arrest him.

International campaign

Founded as a non-profit organization in September 2024, HRF has launched similar applications in countries around the world, including Ecuador, the Emirates, Sri Lanka, France, Cyprus and Thailand.

Israeli officials regularly claim that HRF is run by anti-Semitic or anti-Israel extremists, which HRF's founders deny.

In a recent interview, HRF President Diab Abu Yahya talked about how the organization works.

Over the past year, he said, Israeli soldiers have posted thousands of videos and pictures on social media from their time in Gaza. That, he said, includes footage of soldiers saying they are "holy" and evidence of looting, burning houses, posing next to lifeless bodies and openly talking about the torture and extermination of Palestinians.

According to him, the Israeli army told the soldiers not to make or publish such videos.

In early December, the American newspaper Washington Post checked about 120 videos and found that some of them "successfully record evidence of possible violations of international humanitarian law." HRF also uses such media articles.

Not all Israeli soldiers are targeted, but only those who commit possible violations, he said. Potential cases, he said, are prepared when evidence comes to light, but are only used if and when the alleged perpetrator travels abroad.

Volunteer lawyers in other countries then initiate cases against them, he added.

Could the same thing happen in Germany?

HRF has not yet initiated any case in Germany against Israeli soldiers, a spokesman for the organization told DW.

But the law in Germany would enable prosecution of war crimes committed abroad by those who are not German citizens, says lawyer Alexander Schwartz from the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

Since 2002, Germany has incorporated international crimes into its own legal system.

Of the various types of international crimes, "war crime" could be the easiest to prosecute, Schwartz explained. "For example, a soldier unlawfully killed a civilian in Gaza," he continued.

"But when we talk about 'crimes against humanity,' it's much more difficult to prosecute because the threshold to prove it is much higher," Schwartz says.

An organization like the HRF could file a charge in Germany, but when it comes to crimes involving non-German citizens, the German prosecutor has "discretion" to prosecute or not.

The German judiciary, on the other hand, has an obligation to lead an investigation when Germans are victims abroad, Schwartz pointed out.

This was not done in the case of the death of the six-member German-Palestinian family of Abujadallah in October 2024, nor the case of the German woman Shani Luk, who was killed in a Hamas attack on October 7.

"That's why we, like other lawyers and law professors in Germany, argue that the federal prosecutor is not doing his job properly," Schwartz asserted.

It also means German prosecutors are less likely to investigate a case involving Israeli soldiers traveling to Germany, he added.

Kai Ambos, professor of international criminal law at the University of Göttingen, largely agrees. "We have universal jurisdiction, and the German public prosecutor would normally act if the suspect is present in Germany," Ambos told DW.

"But the case of Israel is very sensitive and there would certainly be political opposition that could affect investigations against Israeli citizens," he says.

No judgments

HRF's evidence has not yet been tested in court. According to a recent story in an American magazine New Yorker, several cases are taking place in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, but nothing has yet gone before a judge.

In the Brazilian case, an Israeli soldier deleted his social media posts and fled the country with the help of the Israeli government.

However, as a form of "lawfare" - an action defined as "the use of legal action to cause trouble for an adversary" - HRF has had success.

New York Times recently reported that Israeli officials downplayed HRF's applications, commenting that none had reached the courts.

However, all HRF's moves have caused a storm in the Israeli media, and recently soldiers were warned to return home immediately from some countries, for fear of arrest.

Late last week, the Israeli military also tightened rules for media coverage of soldiers, to protect them from possible prosecution while abroad.

Now all who serve in the rank of colonel will not be allowed to show their faces or full names, and the media must not associate them with a specific combat event in which they participated.