From Family members of hostages submit war crimes complaint against Hamas to ICC
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The family members of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza formally submit their war crimes complaint against the terror group to the International Criminal Court [ICC] in The Hague.
“We came to demand justice. On the 7th of October we went through a second holocaust. These human monsters are the heirs of Hitler, Eichmann and Goebbels. They must be wiped out and the notion of collective death which they spread must be eliminated. History will not repeat itself, we are taking our fate into our hands and demanding the justice that we are owed,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum organization declares.
Several hundred people attend a rally staged by the forum outside the court amid the rain in the Dutch city, in which parents, siblings and children of the hostages, along with those who were released from Hamas’s captivity back in November, and survivors of the October 7 atrocities, address the crowd.
“We have come here today to demand justice. The world cannot be silent. The law cannot be silent,” says Raz Ben Ami, who was abducted by Hamas along with her husband Ohad but was released in November. Ohad remains in Hamas’s captivity.
“Every second my husband is in the Hamas tunnels, his life is in danger. He has no [more] time.”
The forum is hoping that its submission of a 1,000-page document, including eyewitness testimony and evidence, will prod the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Kahn to ramp up his investigation into Hamas war crimes and bring about arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders on charges of kidnapping, crimes of sexual violence, and torture.
