IDF soldier who escaped war crimes investigation in Brazil arrives in Israel

Yuval Vagdani was subject of probe for allegedly filming himself destroying residential building in Gaza; says having to flee Brazil ‘felt a little like a bullet in the heart’

Yuval Vagdani, the Israeli soldier who was forced to flee Brazil after a war crimes probe was opened against him by the Brazilian government. (Social media; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
Yuval Vagdani, the Israeli soldier who was forced to flee Brazil after a war crimes probe was opened against him by the Brazilian government. (Social media; used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

The Israeli soldier who was forced to flee Brazil after the country’s Federal Court ordered police to open a war crimes investigation into him has returned to Israel, according to Hebrew media reports.

The soldier, who was named as Yuval Vagdani, landed in Israel Wednesday morning after he was forced to hurriedly end his vacation in Brazil. He spoke to the Kan broadcaster about his ordeal after he landed.

“I woke up in the morning, opened the phone and suddenly saw eight calls – the Foreign Ministry, my brothers, my mother, consuls,” he told Kan. “I knew something was up.”

Vagdani said he was in Brazil for his “dream trip” after a long stint in the reserves, and that he had planned the trip for over four years.

Being forced to flee Brazil “felt a little like a bullet in the heart,” he said.

According to Channel 12, Vagdani was “smuggled” into Argentina with the help of the Foreign Ministry, and from there was able to fly to Miami, and then Israel.

Upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, Vagdani told Channel 12 that he learned from his mistakes and wouldn’t upload videos from Gaza. “I won’t go back to Brazil again,” he added.

The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had ordered the ministry’s Consular Section and the embassy in Brazil to contact the man and his family, and they “accompanied him throughout the event until his swift and safe departure from Brazil.”

The complaint to the Brazilian court was reportedly submitted by the Hind Rajab Foundation, which is named after a 6-year-old girl, who was killed in Gaza in January. Her death was blamed on the IDF, but an initial probe conducted by the army said that there were no troops in the area at the time.

The organization identifies IDF soldiers via social media content they post from their operations in Gaza and then alerts local law enforcement when they travel abroad in an attempt to get them arrested and prosecuted for war crimes.

Its feed on X is full of soldiers it has identified by name and photo and the locations they have traveled to.

According to the Brazilian Metrópoles news outlet, Vagdani was being investigated in Brazil under suspicion of being involved “in the destruction of a residential building in the Gaza Strip while using explosives outside of combat” in November.

The Hind Rajab Foundation claims the building allegedly destroyed with the soldier’s involvement was being used as a shelter for Palestinians who had been displaced by the war and said its complaint consisted of more than 500 pages of evidence that the soldier was complicit in war crimes.

In a post on X on Saturday night, the organization urged Brazilian authorities to arrest the soldier, claiming that it had information that the Israeli government was  helping the soldier escape the country, and that “there are also indications that evidence is being destroyed.”

“They wrote that I murdered thousands of children and turned it into a 500-page document,” Vagdani said. “All that was there was a picture of me in uniform in Gaza.”

Vagdani was a survivor of the Hamas attack on the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, during the massive onslaught on southern Israel in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza. More than 360 of the victims were murdered at the music festival.

Israeli troops inspect the ravaged site of the attack on the Supernova desert music festival by Palestinian terrorists near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert, October 10, 2023. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Vagdani survived the attack by running for many kilometers until he reached safety, narrowly dodging Hamas gunfire multiple times on the way.

On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry added that it “draws the attention of Israelis to posts on social media about their military service, and to the fact that anti-Israeli elements may exploit these posts to initiate futile legal proceedings against them.”

According to Kan, none of the Hind Rajab Foundation’s accusations have resulted in any arrests, although its actions are of concern to the Foreign Ministry.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report. 

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