Latest news with #GhostUnit
LeMonde
01-07-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Complaint filed against two French-Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in Gaza
The legal fate of French-Israeli soldiers could become a major issue in the coming months and years. Several hundred dual nationals have participated in military operations conducted by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023, the day after the massacre of soldiers and civilians carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and its allies. Their dual nationality makes them liable to prosecution in France, initiated by several human rights groups and associations supporting the Palestinian people. A complaint seeking the opening of a judicial investigation against two French-Israeli soldiers for "war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide" was filed on Tuesday, July 1, according to information obtained by Le Monde. The two soldiers, named Sasha A. and Gabriel B. H., are accused of belonging to an elite unit, the 9 th Platoon of the Auxiliary Company of the 202 nd Battalion of the Israeli army's Paratrooper Brigade, also known as the Ghost Unit. They are suspected of killing several dozen unarmed Palestinian civilians not in uniforms in "deconflicted" zones, meaning outside combat areas, in 2023 and 2024. The issue remains highly relevant as Palestinians continue to be killed daily while queuing at humanitarian aid distribution centers. The complaint was filed by the International Federation for Human Rights, the French Human Rights League and the France Palestine Solidarity Association, as well as three Palestinian organizations: Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The main information in the complaint comes from a 38-minute report by independent Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, broadcast on X in October 2024. It is based on footage filmed by both Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers, several minutes of which were posted on YouTube with commentary by a member of the unit, the American-Israeli Daniel Raab. The Ghost Unit, reportedly composed of about 20 men, is made up of pairs of snipers, the majority of whom are dual nationals. Tirawi compiled an organizational chart of the unit, which includes Sasha A. and Gabriel B. H.
The National
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Lawsuit seeks prosecution of French-Israeli 'Ghost Unit' snipers in Gaza
Human rights activists on Tuesday filed a lawsuit at a Paris court alleging that two French-Israeli snipers committed war crimes in Gaza between November 2023 and March last year. The two men, identified as Sasha A. and Gabriel P., are known to be members of a 20-strong sniper group in the Israeli army's paratroopers brigade known as the Ghost Unit, half of which is composed of dual nationals. It stands accused of shooting at unarmed civilians in Gaza, which would constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, activists said. The complaint, lodged at the war crimes unit of the Paris tribunal, is based on an investigation by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi that he published on X in October last year. It includes an interview with a US-born sergeant who led the Ghost Unit. 'The fact that they are members of this elite unit under the orders of this sergeant indicates that they are authors, or co-authors, or at least accomplices of crimes under international law,' vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Alexis Deswaef, told The National. 'They can be prosecuted and judged even if they are physically absent,' Mr Deswaef said. 'It's important that the judiciary does its work because impunity breeds further impunity.' In Mr Tirawi's investigation, the sergeant, speaking Hebrew, identifies killings executed by members of his team in a video shown to him by an unnamed interviewer. The context of the interview, in which the sergeant openly discusses his unit's operations, remains unclear. The sergeant claims all of the snipers' victims were 'terrorists'. According to translated captions, he says: 'They want to exploit our humaneness. They think, 'oh I don't think they'll shoot us because we're in civilian clothes, because we don't lift up our weapons' and all that, but they were wrong and that's what snipers are for.' The FIDH filed the lawsuit along with its Palestinian and French member organisations – Al-Haq, Al Mezan, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and France's Human Rights League (LDH) – as well as the Association France Palestine Solidarite (AFPS). It includes testimonies compiled by Al Mezan of Gazans who describe being shot by snipers as they attempted to retrieve the bodies of their relatives. One witness, who lost his 17-year old daughter, said that she was shot in the head as she was fetching water. Another described the death of his three sons at the hands of Israeli snipers. 'The convergence of witness accounts and the visual documentation presented by Tirawi strongly points to the involvement of the same snipers in a co-ordinated campaign of extrajudicial killings across various locations in Gaza,' said Issam Younes, general director of Al Mezan. ' France must ensure that these crimes do not go unpunished and guarantee the prosecution of those responsible, especially when they are its own nationals,' said Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for LDH and AFPS. The Israeli army is believed to include 4,000 French citizens. The lawsuit comes six months after the FIDH and other NGOs filed a lawsuit at the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court against another French-Israeli soldier, Yoel O., who published a video in which he appears to insult Palestinian detainees presenting signs of torture. A first lawsuit filed by the same human rights groups in April last year was dismissed by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, which mentioned an 'insufficiently characterised offence'. Investigations were also launched last year into members of the 'Ghost Unit' in Belgium and South Africa. Its members include three US nationals, two French, one Belgian, one South African, one Italian and other Israelis with unknown dual nationality, according to Mr Tirawi.
