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The Hind Rajab Foundation on Tuesday said that it has filed a criminal complaint in India against an Israeli soldier vacationing in the country.
The Belgium-based nonprofit organisation did not identify the soldier, but stated that he had documented his deployment in Gaza and his alleged “direct involvement in the unlawful destruction” of civilian property during Israeli operations in the Khan Younis governorate of the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The foundation said that the soldier “may have been involved” in war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.
The organisation pursues legal action against persons responsible for atrocities against Palestinians.
The pro-Palestine group’s complaint focuses on the “systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure” in the Abasan al-Saghira area of Khan Younis between March 2024 and April 2024. The foundation said that it had identified the suspect as “a member of the unit involved in these criminal acts”.
Satellite imagery and social media footage verified by the Hind Rajab Foundation, and open-source intelligence “confirm that extensive demolition occurred after Israeli forces had established operational control of the area, rather than because of active combat”, it alleged.
The Hind Rajab Foundation said that the acts constituted war crimes under Articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute.
The Geneva Conventions are a set of international treaties that form the core of global humanitarian law by establishing legal and ethical standards for the treatment of civilians and prisoners during wartime. India is a signatory to the conventions. The Rome Statute is an international treaty that set up the International Criminal Court to prosecute persons for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and acts of aggression.
First complaint in June
In June, the Hind Rajab Foundation had urged the authorities in India to arrest an Israeli reservist for his alleged role in the crimes committed by the military in Gaza.
In that complaint with the police, the Union home ministry and India’s immigration bureau, the nonprofit organisation had demanded that Eitan Gilboa be arrested immediately. He was vacationing in Himachal Pradesh, the foundation had said in a statement at the time.
The foundation had said that India, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, is obligated under the treaties to search for and prosecute persons alleged to have committed grave breaches, regardless of their citizenship.
The presence of Gilboa in India contradicted Article 51(c) of the Indian Constitution, which directs the state to foster respect for international law, the foundation had said. “India now holds both the suspect and the obligation to act,” it had added.
On Tuesday, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the general director of the Hind Rajab Foundation, said that the second complaint filed in India was part of the nonprofit organisation’s “commitment and duty to bring perpetrators before the courts” and that New Delhi must comply with its international obligations.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, leaving more than 73,300 persons dead.
In September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
In June, commission said that the Israeli military had deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children to commit a genocide. The Israeli forces have killed more than 20,000 children and injured 44,000 since October 2023, the panel said.
Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Anamika Pathak.
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