Families of 11 Hamas victims file complaint with the International Criminal Court
Families of eleven victims of the Hamas attack on October 7 have accused the perpetrators of “crimes against humanity” in a complaint filed to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Relatives of the victims, who were all civilians, have also called on International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate Hamas’ actions as “war crimes” that were carried out as part of a “genocidal plan,” according to a press statement shared with CNN by their lawyer Francois Zimeray on Friday.
“It was the execution of a genocidal plan assumed by its perpetrators. In the face of denial in real time, the truth must be defended, these atrocities must be known and engraved in the collective memory," the complaint lodged by Zimeray, a lawyer at the Paris Bar and ICC said.
The complaint concerns 11 victims who were either killed or injured within Israeli borders. Several had been at the Nova music festival, where Hamas gunmen killed more than 260 people.
According to Zimeray's law firm, Zimeray & Finelle, “the material facts cannot… be disputed” as Hamas has “amply documented and broadcast” its actions, which shocked the “universal conscience.”
Zimeray asked the prosecution to "consider the advisability of issuing an international arrest warrant for the leaders of Hamas, following the example of the warrant issued for the Russian President in relation to the aggression in Ukraine."
The development comes days after Khan visited the region and where, from Cairo, he gave a speech in which he said that impeding the flow of aid into Gaza could constitute a war crime.
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