The group that rules Gaza should also be prosecuted for genocide, say nine families of victims of the October 7 Hamas attack.
The families of nine Israeli victims of Hamas attacks last month have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, according to their lawyer.
The families also want Hamas, the group that governs Gaza, to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes, and for the ICC to issue an international arrest warrant against its leaders, lawyer François Zimeray said in a statement Friday.
On October 7, Hamas carried out raids that Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,400 people.
“The complaint concerns victims who were all civilians,” Zimeray said, adding that several of them were present at the Tribe of Nova music festival.
“The complaint indicates that Hamas terrorists do not deny the crimes committed, which they have widely documented and disseminated, and therefore the facts cannot be disputed,” he said.
In an interview with Radio Classique, Zimeray said he was always wary of “excessive qualifications” of events.
But, he added, he and his legal team had established that the charge of “genocide” “stands up under the law.”
Any individual or group can bring a case to the ICC, located in The Hague, but it is up to the court’s prosecutor to launch an investigation.
Contacted by the AFP news agency, the court was not immediately able to say whether it had received documents relating to the case.
The ICC, founded in 2002, investigates and prosecutes serious crimes around the world.
In 2021, he opened an investigation into Israel as well as Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
His prosecutor, Karim Khan, has said any alleged war crimes in the ongoing conflict would fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
However, ICC teams were unable to enter Gaza, nor Israel, which is not a member of the ICC.
