Gaza - Saba:
The Hind Rajab Human Rights Foundation stated that the Republic of Peru has opened a formal criminal investigation against an Israeli soldier on charges of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The human rights organization submitted a legal complaint, accompanied by documented audio and video evidence, accusing the soldier, who served in the Israeli army's combat engineering corps, of direct participation in the destruction of civilian neighborhoods in Gaza between 2023 and 2024 during the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The organization said in a statement: "Rather than serving as a support unit, the engineering corps served as the primary operational arm of the destruction, systematically reducing civilian areas to rubble, razing entire communities, and rendering vast swaths of Gaza uninhabitable."
The organization considered Peru's initiation of a formal investigation into the evidence it presented a significant development for international justice and an affirmation of the importance of exercising universal jurisdiction, rather than merely recognizing it, when those responsible for international crimes are found within the territory of a state. In her statement, Hind Rajab called on all states, especially those party to the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, to follow Peru's example by initiating legal proceedings against individuals implicated in the genocide in Gaza, who may fall within their international jurisdiction.
Commenting on Peru's move, the organization's president, Diab Abu Jahjah, said it was not a symbolic step, but rather the beginning of real legal accountability, adding that "justice is not an option, but a duty."
This legal complaint is one of dozens of files the human rights organization has prepared to pursue soldiers in the Israeli army's combat engineering corps, focusing on their role in carrying out Israel's genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.
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