The US-based rights organization, Democracy for Arab World Now (DAWN) has submitted a list of 40 senior Israeli commanding officers to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza Strip.
DAWN filed the submission on Wednesday, December 20, to ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
In a statement, the rights group’s executive director, Sarah Leah Whitson, urges the ICC to investigate Israel’s 40 officers as “prime suspects” in the genocidal Gaza war.
“These 40 officers who have been responsible for planning, ordering, and executing Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment, wanton destruction, and mass killing of civilians in Gaza should be prime suspects in any ICC investigation,” Whitson said in a statement.
“While Israel has done its best to conceal the identities of many of its officers, they should be put on notice that they face individual criminal liability for the crimes under way in Gaza.”
The rights group plans to publicly release the names of all 40 officers in coming months, among them was Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs Yoav Gallant, Majot General Ghassan Alian and Lt. Col. Dvir Edri, the commander of the 460th Armored Brigade.
Michael Schaefer Omar Mann, the organization’s research director for Israel and Palestine affairs, explained that Israeli criminal law does not specify any kind of “command responsibility” for war crimes, “which means that Israeli courts never hold senior officers accountable.”
He continued “Because Israel is not taking even the basic step of investigating senior officers, it cannot say that the ICC is the wrong jurisdiction.”
The Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, resulting in more than 20,000 deaths and 52,600 injured, infrastructure destruction, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
