French authorities have issued warrants for two French-Israeli nationals for “complicity in genocide” after they were accused of trying to prevent humanitarian aid from entering war-torn Gaza, a legal source said on Monday.
According to the lawyers of the non-governmental organizations that filed a legal complaint last year, this is the first time that a country considers blocking humanitarian aid as a possible form of “complicity in genocide”.
Warrants were issued last July for Nili Kupfer-Naouri of the Israel is Forever group and Rachel Touitou of the Tsav 9 group, a source close to the investigation told AFP, following French media reports.
The warrants summon both men to appear before an investigating judge, but do not order their arrest.
The two are accused of trying to block aid trucks entering Gaza between January and November 2024, as well as in May last year at the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom border crossings.
Olivier Pardo, Kupfer-Naouri’s lawyer, said the “pacifist” actions were aimed at condemning the “hijacking” of humanitarian aid by Hamas and other groups that carried out the attacks on October 7, 2023, which started the war in Gaza.
– If a peaceful demonstration with an Israeli flag against a terrorist organization that seizes humanitarian aid, diverts it and resells it at enormous prices to the residents of Gaza is a crime – then there is no need to look towards the mullahs, France is Iran – wrote 34-year-old Touitou on her social media account.
In an interview with The News portal, Kupfer-Naouri (50) called the French investigation “anti-Semitic madness.”
Pardo said Kupfer-Naouri is currently in Israel but is willing to talk to French investigators there.
The two activists are also suspected of “publicly inciting genocide” for calling to prevent the delivery of aid to Gaza, the source said.
Another source close to the investigation said warrants could be issued for about ten more people.
Applications were submitted last year by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the organizations Al-Haq and Al-Mezan. Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer for these organizations, said that this is the first investigation of its kind under the law on genocide.
Other legal charges for “war crimes” have been filed in France, including those related to the deaths of French-Palestinian children in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, as well as against two French-Israeli soldiers who participated in operations in the territory.
(Vijesti.ba)
