Peru launches probe into Israeli soldier's war crimes in Gaza Strip
Peru has opened a formal criminal investigation into an Israeli soldier's war crimes in the Gaza Strip, the Hind Rajab Human Rights Foundation (HRF) says.
The HRF said in a statement on Sunday it has submitted documented audio and video evidence to Peruvian authorities against the soldier, who served in the Israeli forces’ combat engineering corps, for “methodical and systematic destruction of civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip” between 2023 and 2024.
The foundation has described the investigation which is based upon a complaint filed by prominent human rights lawyer Julio César Arbizu González as a “landmark development for international justice.”
“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,” said the HRF.
The foundation has also shared footage on social media that shows the soldier celebrating while detonating a civilian building.
It has said the soldier could face charges including “war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.”
Peru’s initiation of a formal criminal investigation into the evidence presents 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, said the Foundation
The foundation also called on all states, especially the states that have signed 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.
Diab Abu Jahjah, the foundation’s president, has said that Peru’s move is not just a symbolic step, but rather the beginning of real legal accountability, and added that “justice is not an option, but a duty.”
The legal complaint is only one of several files the human rights organization has prepared to pursue soldiers in the Israeli forces’ combat engineering corps.
These files focus on the soldiers’ role in carrying out Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.
The HRF was founded in 2024 and is named after a Palestinian girl who was brutally killed, along with several members of her family and first responders who were trying to rescue her, by Israeli tank gunners in Gaza.
The organization gathers open-source intelligence on Israeli soldiers, including details of their military service. Its major goal is to facilitate the prosecution of these soldiers abroad.
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