The Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based organization, has filed a criminal complaint in the United Kingdom against Lidor Dafna, an Israeli reservist, alleging war crimes committed during military operations in Gaza. Dafna, who served in the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, is accused of participating in the destruction of a flour production facility in May 2025, a time when Gaza was experiencing severe food shortages due to an Israeli blockade. According to the foundation, social media footage attributed to Dafna documents the demolition of wheat silos in southern Gaza by Israeli military equipment.
The foundation’s approach centers on converting digital content uploaded by Israeli soldiers themselves into evidence for international criminal complaints. Natacha Bracq, the organization’s head of litigation, explained that investigators employ the Berkeley Protocol, a methodology developed by UC Berkeley and UN human rights offices, to geolocate, verify, and cross-reference digital material against satellite imagery and military records. This rigorous verification process aims to establish both the occurrence of alleged crimes and the specific responsibility of identified individuals.
The organization is named after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed along with her family when Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicle in Gaza City in January 2024. The foundation’s pursuit of justice through international legal systems reflects what it characterizes as the inadequacy of internal Israeli accountability mechanisms. Hind’s grandmother, speaking from Gaza, expressed skepticism toward Israeli military investigations, stating that such processes serve primarily to justify actions to the international community rather than produce meaningful consequences.
The foundation’s strategy has already produced results in other jurisdictions. In Belgium, complaints led to the detention and questioning of two Israeli soldiers, with the case subsequently referred to the International Criminal Court. In Canada, a former combat soldier was detained and interrogated at Toronto Pearson Airport, and his visa was subsequently revoked. However, a case filed in Brazil demonstrated the limitations of this approach when an Israeli soldier left the country with official assistance before detention could occur.
International legal experts note that while social media evidence can be valuable, establishing individual responsibility remains distinct from documenting incidents. Khaled al-Shouli, an international lawyer representing Palestinian victims before the ICC, emphasized that proving a specific person’s culpability requires more than their presence at a location. He also noted that jurisdiction for Palestinian cases relies on territorial rather than universal jurisdiction, creating multiple potential pathways for accountability through different national courts and international institutions.
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