France opens 'complicity in genocide' probes over blocked Gaza aid
The two investigations, opened after legal complaints, were also to look into possible "complicity in crimes against humanity" between January and May 2024, the anti-terror prosecutor's office (PNAT) said.
They are the first known probes in France to be looking into alleged violations of international law in Gaza, several sources with knowledge of the cases told AFP.
In a separate case made public on the same day, the grandmother of two children with French nationality who were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza has filed a legal complaint in Paris, accusing Israel of "genocide" and "murder", her lawyer said.
The French judiciary has jurisdiction when French citizens are involved in such cases.
Rights groups, lawyers and some Israeli historians have described the Gaza war as "genocide".
Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II, vehemently rejects the accusation.
The French probes were opened after two separate legal complaints.
In the first, the Jewish French Union for Peace (UFJP) and a French-Palestinian victim filed a complaint in November targeting alleged French members of hardline pro-Israel groups "Israel is forever" and "Tzav-9".
It accused them of "physically" preventing the passage of trucks at border checkpoints controlled by the Israeli army.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Damia Taharraoui and Marion Lafouge, told AFP they were happy a probe had been launched into the events in January 2024 -- "a time when no-one wanted to hear anything about genocide".
A source close to the case said prosecutors last month urged the investigation in relation to events at the Nitzana crossing point between Egypt and Israel, and the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza.
Around that time, hardline Israeli protesters -- including friends and relatives of hostages held in Gaza -- blocked aid lorries from entering the occupied Palestinian territory and forced them to turn back at Kerem Shalom.
A second complaint from a group called the Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East (CAPJO) accused members of "Israel is forever" of having blocked aid trucks.
It used photos, videos and public statements to back up its complaint.
- 'Genocide' complaint -
No court has so far concluded that the ongoing conflict is a genocide.
But in rulings in January, March and May 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including through allowing in urgently needed aid.
In the separate case, Jacqueline Rivault, the grandmother of six- and nine-year-old children killed in an Israeli strike, filed her complaint accusing Israel of "genocide" and "murder" with the crimes against humanity section of the Court of Paris, lawyer Arie Alimi said.
Though formally against unnamed parties, the complaint explicitly targets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government and the military.
The complaint states that an Israeli missile strike killed Janna, six, and Abderrahim Abudaher, nine, in northern Gaza on October 24, 2023.
"We believe these children are dead as part of a deliberate organised policy targeting the whole of Gaza's population with a possible genocidal intent," Alimi said.
The children's brother Omar, now five, was severely wounded but still lives in Gaza with their mother, identified as Yasmine Z., the complaint said.
A French court in 2019 convicted Yasmine Z. in absentia of having funded a "terrorist" group over giving money in Gaza to members of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
- Famine warnings -
Israel said last month it was easing the complete blockade of Gaza it imposed on March 2 but on May 30 the United Nations said the territory's entire population of more than two million people remained at risk of famine.
A US-backed aid group last week began distributions but reports that the Israeli military shot dead dozens of Palestinians trying to collect food has sparked widespread condemnation. The UN and major aid organisations have refused to cooperate with the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund, citing concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Hamas fighters launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. A total of 1,218 people died, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory war on Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there, figures the United Nations deems reliable.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over similar allegations linked to the October 7 attack but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him.
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GIL DICKMAN: He knows that there are political implications for him signing the deal that will return the hostages home, and he doesn't want to pay the price. He doesn't want his government to fall. He doesn't want to risk his own political role and his own political, you know, chair. ADAM HARVEY: Mr Netanyahu's coalition government relies on the support of hardliners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Both men are in the Prime Minister's six-man war cabinet which reportedly last week overruled the concerns of even the IDF's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir about the dangers of occupying Gaza City. Israel dismantled the last of 21 settlements in Gaza in 2005 and forcibly removed settlers. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich want them to return. AMI AYALON: Their goal is to conquer everything, Gaza, West Bank, to occupy and to annex all the territories. ADAM HARVEY: There are nearly 700,000 Israeli settlers living on the site of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 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ABC News
13 hours ago
- ABC News
Military, MAGA and 'anti-government extremist' links behind shadowy Gaza aid agency GHF
The American security contractor listed his new employer as "confidential" but spelled out details of the job online. Michael Reynolds was working on a project he described as a "US-Israel partnership". According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously held a senior role with what a prominent US civil rights legal centre claimed was an "anti-government extremist organisation". In May, Mr Reynolds became a security contractor for a "humanitarian aid program" in Gaza. Further online searches by the ABC identified Mr Reynolds as an employee of UG Solutions, a security provider for a mysterious aid agency embroiled in international controversy. The US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has supplanted the United Nations as the main provider of aid in Gaza, home to about 2.1 million people. Half a million are on the brink of famine and the rest are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme. 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A retired US special forces officer, Mr Aguilar said the chequered backgrounds of some security contractors around him fed his concern about a lack of professionalism among those delivering aid in Gaza. Many had been recruited from the ranks of a US military motorcycle club, "Infidels MC", he said. Sami Muamar, a Palestinian-born educator in Brisbane, says he has implored family members living in southern Gaza to avoid the GHF aid site at Khan Younis altogether. Instead, he sends money for them to buy food at inflated prices on the black market. "It costs me a lot of money, we pay probably $50 per kilo of flour right now," he says. "I said I don't want you to risk anybody's life, just to stay home. Israel blocked all aid to Gaza for 11 weeks from March 2 to May 21, banning staff from the UN's own relief agency from entering the strip over contested claims of Hamas infiltration. It says the new scheme stops Hamas profiteering from aid. However, an internal US government analysis reportedly found no evidence of this happening with US aid, findings that were challenged by the White House. US members of Congress have raised concerns about the "militarisation" of aid through GHF's involvement with both the IDF and armed US contractors, and its lack of experience delivering humanitarian aid. Many observers say aid providers should be impartial and independent of military forces. Australian lawyer Chris Sidoti, who co-chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, says the secrecy around GHF raises suspicions about its true purpose. "No one really knows where [GHF] came from, who set it up, whose idea it was, who's funding it, and where they're sourcing their personnel," Mr Sidoti told the ABC. "Except, we do know that a number of the American security guards are former military personnel, so whether that means that they've totally divorced themselves from any contact with the military — or for example with the CIA — is something that no one knows. GHF planned to set up a Swiss bank account option for donors but settled on registration in the secretive US tax haven of Delaware in February. Its executive director, former US Marine Jake Wood, quit before its aid hubs even opened. "I am proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza," Mr Wood said in a statement. "However, it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon." He was replaced by Reverend Johnnie Moore, a "close ally" of US President Donald Trump, according to Democrat lawmakers, and a leader of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. GHF claimed to have launched operations with almost $US120 million ($183 million) of funding from "other government donors". Israel denied it was among them, despite reports that the government covertly poured about $US280 million into the GHF "aid mechanism". The US state department approved a $US30m grant to GHF in June, reportedly despite objections from USAID officials, including one who found it failed to meet "minimum technical or budgetary standards". Democrat lawmakers say this is "troubling" and that GHF aid hubs appear to "operate at a reduced capacity at an exorbitant cost" way beyond those of "experienced humanitarian organizations". They have demanded an investigation of GHF and say full disclosure of its funding is "imperative". GHF runs its aid hubs in Gaza with two private American firms — Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions — providing security and logistics. The online footprints of some of these contractors offer a glimpse of GHF's close alignment with the US and Israeli governments. They are also a window into the backgrounds of some of those now responsible for delivering most of the aid in Gaza. According to his LinkedIn profile, contractor Michael Reynolds's role with UG Solutions includes ensuring "the safety and operational continuity of US and Israeli personnel". It also involves following "US Department of State and host nation security directives" and coordinating "closely with multinational military [and] governmental partners". Anthony Aguilar told the ABC that he recognised Mr Reynolds as one of those providing "static site" security for GHF in southern Gaza. He said Mr Reynolds's role was "crowd control" and that he was "armed with a fully automatic rifle, a combat pistol, stun grenades, tear gas and riot baton". Mr Reynolds previously worked for Mayhem Solutions Group, an Arizona-based security and intelligence outfit that was involved in reconnaissance patrols of the Mexican border and was associated with the hard right of US President Donald Trump's MAGA movement. Mr Reynolds was "vice-president of global risk solutions" for Mayhem when it was alleged to be an "anti-government extremist organisation" by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) in 2022. SPLC has been monitoring and taking legal action against extremist groups since the 1970s, and partnered with law enforcement including the FBI. SPLC's claims about Mayhem would place it in the same category as militias such as the Oath Keepers, whose leader was jailed for seditious conspiracy over the January 6 insurrection in Washington before Mr Trump pardoned him. Mayhem was reportedly paid up to $US20 million by a Texas state contractor to help transport immigrants and asylum seekers interstate in what a whistleblower claimed were "disgusting and inhuman" conditions. Mayhem also shared intelligence and data on border crossings with The America Project, an organisation that was co-founded by former Trump national security advisor Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and funded political candidates who denied the results of the 2020 US election. SPLC claims "anti-government groups" such as Mayhem are "part of the anti-democratic hard-right movement". "They believe the federal government is tyrannical, and they traffic in conspiracy theories about an illegitimate government of leftist elites seeking a 'New World Order.'" A spokesman for UG Solutions did not directly address questions about specific employees. He said the company "hires only experienced professionals — primarily former US Special Operations Forces and intelligence personnel — who have demonstrated years of operational excellence". "Each individual undergoes extensive vetting, reference checks, and must meet our stringent standards for weapons proficiency and operational conduct prior to deployment, including qualifying on their weapons. "Every team member undergoes comprehensive background checks, and only qualified, vetted individuals are deployed on UG Solutions operations." UG Solutions's chief executive is a former US Army Special Forces soldier and its "head of talent acquisition" was an army counterintelligence officer. Neither man could be reached by phone. The ABC spoke briefly to a former US Army staff sergeant employed by UG Solutions as an "international humanitarian security officer". "I can't give a comment at this time, thank you." GHF's other security provider, Safe Reach Solutions, was founded by former senior CIA operative Philip Reilly. Mr Reilly was the deputy chief of Operation Jawbreaker, the CIA's response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and was then among the first US agents on the ground in Afghanistan, where he became chief of "the largest [CIA] station in the world at the time". Until last December, he was also a senior adviser at Boston Consulting Group, where two senior partners reportedly met with Israeli officials to work out how GHF would operate and set prices for the security contractors. Boston sacked the partners in June, saying the work for GHF was "unauthorised". Mr Reilly's employees now include a former Pentagon official who led a review of close-combat operations during the first Trump presidency, a former US State Department official who became an Air Force intelligence officer, and a former US Army logistics officer who advised the Palestinian Authority on vehicle and small arms maintenance. For all that, the US members of Congress demanding an investigation say they have "serious concerns" that GHF and its partners, with no prior humanitarian experience … could become the sole or primary aid provider in Gaza". Mohamed Duar, Amnesty International Australia's spokesperson on the occupied Palestinian territories, says GHF is an "illegitimate and inhumane aid agency" that was never going to replace the work of others in Gaza, including the UN's relief agencies. "The alarming concern is that GHF puts Israeli forces and possibly paid mercenaries in charge of aid delivery," he says. "Humanitarian aid principles should never be politicised or weaponised." Mr Duar offers the grim prediction that "more people will die from starvation than will die from bombardment to date". The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in almost 22 months, according to the Gaza health ministry. It was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage — 49 of them still held in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive — by Israeli tallies. Mr Sidoti says the failures of GHF raise the possibility that it was merely a ploy to pay lip service to international concerns. "The killings continue. The whole exercise has been an absolute shambles," he says.
