The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (witness) sent
an urgent legal memorandum to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, demanding an immediate investigation into
the war crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the family of
Palestinian doctor Alaa Al-Najjar in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, which
resulted in the death of nine of her children in an airstrike targeting their
home on 25 May 2025.
In her memorandum, witness stressed that this crime is a
flagrant example of serious violations of international humanitarian law, and a
direct violation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which criminalizes the
deliberate killing of civilians, noting that the victims were all civilian
children who did not participate in any hostilities, and were in their home at
the time of the bombing.
witness called on the Office of the Prosecutor to include
this crime in the ongoing investigation file on crimes committed in the
occupied Palestinian territories since 2023, and to consider it part of an
expanded and systematic pattern of targeting Palestinian families, especially
children, in clear violation of international conventions. She noted that the
number of children killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on 7
October 2023 has exceeded 15,600.
At the end of its memorandum, the Palestinian Foundation for
Human Rights (witness) stressed that the absence of international accountability
encourages the continuation of crimes and undermines the credibility of the
international justice system, calling on the ICC to take concrete steps in
prosecuting those responsible for this crime and ensuring that they do not go
unpunished.
26 May 2025