Hezbollah-Linked NGO Targets Israeli Soldiers with Legal Complaints Abroad

Photo Credit: TPS

Soldiers in the Israeli army's Engineering Corps during an operation to destroy Hamas tunnels in the southern Gaza area of Rafah on Aug. 6, 2024.

(TPS) An Arab non-governmental organization filing international requests for arrest warrants for Israeli soldiers is linked to Hezbollah, The Press Service of Israel (TPS) has learned.

The Israel Defense Forces has recently warned soldiers traveling abroad that they risk being arrested, forcing them to cancel travel plans while others have been advised to return home — including one who narrowly avoided arrest in Cyprus in mid-November.

“Not all the details can be made public, but it was a serious and timely effort on the part of the IDF and the Foreign Minister to get the soldier out of Cyprus,” a military source confirmed to TPS.

“Up to 30 soldiers needed to return to Israel immediately in the past year, because the army warned them they could be arrested,” he said.

The risk of arrest comes from two legal fronts, anti-Israel non-governmental organizations filing legal requests based on information found on the internet, and the International Criminal Court.

The Hezbollah Connection
In the case of Lt. L, who was forced to leave Cyprus early, it was because the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint with Cypriot authorities accusing him of “war crimes and genocidal intent.” When the NGO tweeted that Cyprus had officially opened an investigation, L was helped to immediately leave the country.

The Hind Rajab Foundation filed similar complaints in other countries, including Netherlands and Ecuador. It also petitioned the ICC to issue Interpol arrest warrants against 1,000 Israeli soldiers in eight different countries, including France, Ireland, and South Africa, according to the NGO’s website.

The foundation’s chairman, Dyab Abou Jahjah, is a known supporter of Hezbollah, according to the NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based organization that monitors the activities and funding of NGOs. Jahjah boasted of his membership in the terror group when he told The New York Times in 2003, “I had some military training, I’m still very proud of this.”

According to TPS-IL’s military source, the IDF formed a special unit after October 7 to monitor the information about possible arrests and to warn the soldiers, or help them to return to Israel if there is a fear of arrest. They also advise a soldier who wants to go abroad about possible risks and how to avoid them in a specific country.

Legal expert Maurice Hirsch told TPS-IL that countries that do not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, such as the US, India and China, are relatively safe for soldiers to travel to. Hirsch –a senior legal analyst at Human Rights Voices, who served previously as Director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria — added that regarding complaints filed by anti-Israeli NGOs, the situation differs from country to country.

“Many countries have legislation that allows them to prosecute war criminals, even if they are not citizens of the country. It is the so-called ‘universal authority,’ Hirsch said. “And every country has its own rules regarding this. In the UK, for example, they changed the legislation a few years ago, and now only the government can file a complaint like this, but not an NGO or a private person. In Belgium the situation is different.”

Meanwhile, TPS-IL’s military source said that soldiers are advised not to upload images of them in Gaza, especially where they can be identified. “But the discipline regarding this, especially among the reservists, could be better,” he admitted.

Another legal threat to the military officers comes from the ICC itself.

“The problem with ICC is that, because of the court proceedings, we don’t always know in advance that the arrest warrant is issued. And an officer will only know about it after he is arrested abroad,” Hirsch explained. “There is a possibility that there are more arrest warrants to senior officers and maybe even to soldiers.”

The Hague-based tribunal has already issued unprecedented arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November. The legal action was spearheaded by the Palestinian Authority, which in 2014 was recognized by the court as a “State,” leading Israeli officials to accuse the ICC of being politicized.

Other national leaders with outstanding ICC warrants include Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, Libyan general Mahmoud al-Warfali and God’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 67 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.