Israeli officials are concerned about the arrest of their soldiers after fighting in Gaza after a soldier fled Brazil to avoid being questioned about alleged war crimes he committed in Gaza and were filmed on social media.

Based in Belgium Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) is the driving force behind this international effort for accountability.

Founded just five months ago, the human rights organization has brought together lawyers and activists from around the world to prepare cases, based primarily on social media content shared by Israeli soldiers themselves.

Israeli reservist Yuval Vaghdani was among the first to say there will be many more soldiers accused of war crimes, founder and president of the human rights organization Diab Abu Jahjah said.

Speaking to Israeli media on Wednesday after he was “forced” to cut short his “dream trip” to Brazil, Vaghdani said finding himself the subject of a war crimes investigation abroad after he filmed himself blowing up people’s homes in Gaza “felt a bit like… “Bullet in the heart.”

According to local media, the Israeli Foreign Ministry played a crucial role in helping Vaghdani evade investigation and potential prosecution for war crimes, first arranging for him to be smuggled to Argentina, and from there to the United States, before eventually leaving for Israel. .

The Israeli authorities and media issued guidelines for soldiers regarding Escape from arrest abroad and Disguise their identities While publishing.

No response was received to Al Jazeera’s inquiry about whether these additional measures include training reserve soldiers on what may constitute a war crime.

And provide evidence against them

After 15 months of Israeli soldiers proudly sharing videos of themselves committing possible war crimes in Gaza, the human rights organization had plenty of evidence to use when seeking to prosecute them under international and domestic law.

Videos and footage show how soldiers use force Palestinian men posing in their underwearill-treatment of prisoners, looting And vandalizing homes They even wore the women’s clothes they had looted.

“It is about accountability before the law,” Abu Jahjah said. “If individual soldiers feel they did not commit a war crime, that is fine. Let us hear their case. It is in everyone’s interest for them to do so.”

Hind Rajab is the name of a five-year-old girl who was killed in a car in Gaza by Israel while pleading for help by phone for three hours, surrounded by her dead family members and in full view of two Palestinian paramedics who were also killed trying to reach her.

To date, the institution that bears its name has brought more than 1,000 cases before the International Court.

Abu Jahjah explained that the human rights organization’s lawyers and online activists search through mountains of images and videos submitted to them online to verify each one, determine its geographical location, verify its metadata and verify its chain of custody, from the soldier photographing it to the human rights organization.

When the perpetrator is a dual national, the human rights organization seeks prosecution under the country’s second war crimes laws and, in the case of lone Israeli citizens, collects legal files, which are then submitted as evidence to the International Criminal Court.

Predictably, the human rights organization’s work has been met with intense criticism in Israel, with some claiming that these legal actions amount to “surveillance” (the unauthorized publication of individual identities) of the soldiers who filmed themselves.

Abu Jahjah was also personally threatened by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Shikli, who – referring to attacks on Hezbollah members’ communications systems in September 2024 – told him to “monitor your pager”.

“I don’t really care,” Abu Jahjah said. “I’ve been in this for many years, and when you compare it to what’s happening in Gaza, the threats against me don’t mean much.”

The human rights organization also maintains a list of what it describes as “perpetrators, accomplices and instigators” against whom it seeks to investigate for war crimes.

Impunity and persecution

“They are proud of these actions,” Melina Ansari of Human Rights Watch said from Jerusalem about the possible war crimes soldiers are spreading on social media.

“Publishing it online further dehumanizes Palestinians and provides cause for actual celebration,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The sense of impunity is absolute… It has always been there, especially with regard to Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank, but has increased significantly since October 2023.” [when Israel’s war on Gaza began]”.

Political scientist Uri Goldberg of Tel Aviv said many in Israel view the cases against reservists as unfair and a continuation of centuries of anti-Semitism, a sentiment that the Israeli state claims and uses as a weapon.

“Things are deteriorating inside Israel,” Goldberg said. “You can’t participate in genocide for 15 months and expect anything else. Israel has changed fundamentally.

“People don’t see Palestinians as human beings yet, if they ever do. For most people, Palestinians are not even vermin. Vermin have to be killed. Palestinians are less so,” he said.

In this context, the fact that a few soldiers “vented their anger” during a war for which no one felt responsible, and where the only casualties were Palestinians, was understandable to many inside Israel, Goldberg said.

“They are portraying this as the world against Israel,” Goldberg said of the government and media reaction to the numerous investigations and trials believed to be underway.

“It’s the persecution of the Jews, again,” he said.

Goldberg continued: “Most people don’t even feel that Gaza has anything to do with them. On the one hand, we keep bombing it, and on the other hand, we feel that we are not responsible for what is happening there.”