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BEN GURION AIRPORT/THE HAGUE: Israeli survivors of the Oct 7 assaults and relations of victims are stepping up efforts to get the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) prosecutor to research Hamas’ crimes, as a part of his investigation into the assault and Israel’s response in Gaza.
“We wish to make it possible for the world acts and that their freedom is hindered,” Udi Goren, cousin of 41-year-old Tal Haimi who was kidnapped on Oct 7, stated of leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas. Haimi was later confirmed useless, his physique nonetheless being held in Gaza.
Israeli survivors of the Oct 7 Hamas assault and households of victims need the court docket to focus on Hamas leaders with arrest warrants.
“We wish to … make it possible for the leaders of Hamas are taken into custody or that they can’t depart Qatar anymore and that this places strain on them to launch the hostages,” Goren stated, talking at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
Goren was amongst a bunch of round 100 relations of hostages and survivors getting ready to fly to the ICC’s headquarters in The Hague.
Israel shouldn’t be a member of the ICC and doesn’t recognise its jurisdiction. However prosecutor Karim Khan has stated his court docket had jurisdiction over any potential struggle crimes carried out by Hamas in Israel and by Israelis within the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli group will file the most recent in a number of so-called Article 15 communications on behalf of Israeli victims.
These authorized filings are supposed to present data to the prosecution and are a part of a wider push to get the ICC to behave towards Hamas leaders.
In an indication that the ICC’s investigation into Oct 7 is shifting ahead, lawyer Yael Vias Gvirsman, who represents one other group of Israeli victims, advised Reuters {that a} handful of her purchasers gave testimony on to ICC investigators in The Hague final week.
“It was a big subsequent step for the investigation. Investigators sat down with victims for very lengthy hours to listen to private accounts by key witnesses of a number of crime scenes of the Oct 7 assaults,” stated Vias Gvirsman, who represents 200 Israeli victims from 42 totally different households on the ICC.
On Oct 7, Hamas carried out a cross-border raid on southern Israel during which 1,200 Israelis had been killed and round 240 had been taken hostage, in keeping with Israeli tallies.
It sparked the continued Israeli navy offensive in Gaza which has laid waste to a lot of the densely-populated strip of land on the Mediterranean and left over 28,000 Palestinians dead, in keeping with Gaza well being officers.
The case on the ICC is separate from the genocide case launched towards Israel on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice or World Courtroom additionally based mostly in The Hague.
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