Global Pursuit: Exposing and Holding Israeli Soldiers Accountable for War Crimes

For over 15 months of genocidal warfare and Israeli aggression on Gaza, Israeli soldiers shared a large number of videos and photos documenting their crimes: torture, looting, blowing up homes for amusement, and desecrating mosques to mock their victims.

The soldiers filmed themselves looting homes in Gaza, desecrating mosques, and beating and humiliating detainees, boasting about these actions on their social media accounts.

As Israeli daily Haaretz reported on November 11, 2024, "Israeli officer jokes on social media about accusations of war crimes."

Organizations like "the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF)" and accounts such as "Israel Genocide Tracker" which tracks and collects data from social media, have worked to identify these soldiers, documenting the incidents and following their tracks.

Each soldier now has a near-documented file, complete with audio and video evidence of the violations they have carried out, circulating across social media platforms.

The majority of these soldiers are now like frightened rats, retreating into their holes, fearful of being pursued across the world. 

Some who have been exposed in certain countries have been forced to flee under the cover of night to avoid arrest on charges of war crimes.

Accountability Pursuit

“No such thing as bad publicity,” wrote an Israeli officer named nogaphsh on social media, as she sat smugly amidst the rubble of a destroyed mosque in Gaza, mocking the accusations of war crimes leveled against her, and defiantly challenging anyone who might hold her accountable.

Incidents like these have led to the rise of accounts and organizations dedicated to pursuing justice for the victims of Israeli crimes, gathering the images and posts shared by Israeli soldiers on their social media to expose their actions and hold them accountable in court.

One of the most prominent of these organizations is “the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF),” which “focus[es] on research, documentation, and the collection of evidence on war crimes and human rights violations.”

Using videos and photographs posted by Israeli troops from Gaza, the Foundation follows their movements and seeks to prosecute them in any country they visit.

Hind Rajab was a 5-year-old Palestinian girl killed by occupation soldiers when they bombed the car she sought refuge in, along with six of her relatives, in Gaza on January 29, 2024. 

Her death inspired the foundation's mission to pursue Israeli war criminals, and it was named after her in Brussels.

The foundation, founded in February 2024, states that it "actively pursue[s] legal action against those responsible for these atrocities, including perpetrators, accomplices, and inciters of violence against Palestinians. Through offensive litigation, we aim to hold these actors accountable in both international and national courts, challenging the culture of impunity that has allowed such crimes to persist."

“As of January 6, 2025, HRF had filed complaints against Israeli soldiers in Ecuador, Belgium, UAE, Brazil, Argentina, Sri Lanka, France, Netherlands, Cyprus, Thailand, and the UK,” according to the HRF website.

When Israeli soldier Omri Nir posted a picture on Instagram on December 31, 2023, from inside a house in Gaza whose owners were killed in the Israeli genocide, the HRF pursued him. 

The foundation filed a case against him in Thailand before the International Criminal Court, accusing him of grave violations of international law and officially requesting his arrest.

50 Complaints Across 10 Countries

Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on January 6, 2025, that efforts to pursue legal action against Israeli soldiers abroad have intensified since the onset of the Gaza genocide.

According to Kan, “About 50 complaints have been filed against reserve soldiers, 10 of which have been investigated without any arrests recorded so far.” 

As reported by Anadolu Agency, Kan did not name these countries. However, the Israeli daily Haaretz said “South Africa, Sri Lanka, Belgium, France, and Brazil saw complaints filed against Israeli soldiers.” 

However, no arrests have been made so far, with the Israeli military and intelligence services stepping in to warn and smuggle these criminal soldiers and officers out of reach.

Under the headline “This is the organization pursuing Israeli soldiers traveling abroad,” Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed on January 6, 2025, that “the Hind Rajab Foundation had filed arrest requests for 1,000 dual-nationality [Israeli Occupation Forces] across eight countries,” including Spain, Ireland, and South Africa.

The Israeli paper further disclosed that the Hind Rajab Foundation had altered its strategy, opting not to publish the names of the targeted soldiers in order to increase the chances of their arrest and avoid alerting Israeli authorities. 

“It does not publicly name the soldiers so as not to warn them of their impending arrests,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

On January 5, 2025, a Brazilian court issued an urgent order for the police to arrest an Israeli soldier and investigate him on charges related to war crimes committed in Gaza, following a criminal complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation.

The complaint accused the Israeli soldier of "participating in the demolition of entire civilian neighborhoods in Gaza during a systematic campaign, as part of a broader effort to impose unbearable living conditions on Palestinian civilians, constituting genocide and crimes against humanity under international law."

Israeli Channel 12 reported that the soldier, wanted in Brazil, fled by night to a neighboring country before making his way to “Tel Aviv,” canceling his tourist leave.

The evidence presented against him included videos and photos showing the soldier planting explosives and taking part in the destruction of entire neighborhoods. 

These materials undoubtedly prove the suspect's direct involvement in these heinous acts, a pattern also seen with other soldiers.

The organization stated that it attached more than 500 documents to the complaint when it requested the court to arrest the soldier, fearing he might leave Brazil.

An Israeli reserve officer also fled Cyprus in November 2024 after the Palestinian organization published his photo and name, announcing that it had filed a complaint against him on suspicion of "committing war crimes," as reported by “Israel's” official Kan Radio.

Additionally, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a lawsuit in a Thai court on January 6, 2025, against an Israeli soldier who had been on holiday in Thailand, accusing him of committing war crimes in Gaza.

‘Israel Genocide Tracker’

Alongside the Hind Rajab Foundation, another key role is played by the "Israel Genocide Tracker" account on the X platform, which terrifies Israeli soldiers by exposing their personal information after they confess to their crimes against Palestinians through their own social media accounts.

The account, aptly named "Israel Genocide Tracker," scans social media, collects data on Israeli soldiers, and publishes the genocide crimes that the soldiers have documented and shared online.

What makes this account particularly dangerous for Israeli officers and soldiers is that it creates a "profile" for each soldier, containing personal details such as name, age, family background, military unit, place of residence, and tracks their movements via monitoring platforms to facilitate their arrest should they travel outside of “Israel.”

“The Israel Genocide Tracker” account has caused widespread panic among Israeli soldiers, with Jewish organizations reporting that some have said, “I’m afraid they could google my name and find it there.”

According to Channel 12, many Israeli soldiers are terrified by the account and are perplexed as to how it obtained their photos and personal details, realizing that they will no longer be shielded from accountability.

On January 5, 2025, Israel Hayom reported that an Arab group had published information identifying Israeli soldier Itzik Cohen, claiming he was responsible for the killing of Yahya Sinwar, a death that led to threats against Cohen and his family, despite his denial of any involvement in the Hamas leader’s death.

Exposing 35,000 Soldiers

A report from the investigative site Media Line revealed that details of 35,000 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officials were leaked on Telegram as part of efforts to prosecute Israelis accused of war crimes.

“The Middle East Spectator Telegram channel published a file it said contained names and contact details of 35,000 Israeli soldiers and members of Israel’s Mossad spy agency. The channel presumably intends to help bring the soldiers and agents to justice outside of Israel after finding their whereabouts based on publicly available information.”

Hilly Moodrick-Even Khen, an expert in international law and chair of the Ariel University Center for the Research and Study of Genocide, told The Media Line: “It began about 20 years ago with the proliferation of universal jurisdiction.”

“Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows a state to prosecute individuals for certain crimes even if the crime was committed outside that state and did not involve any citizens of the state. The principle is based on the idea that certain war crimes and crimes against humanity are so shocking that they are of concern to the international community as a whole. Consequently, any country that has passed laws allowing for the application of universal jurisdiction can pursue justice in the case of such crimes,” as reported by The Media Line.

Legal Actions

The legal actions taken against Israeli soldiers in multiple countries have caused concern within the Zionist community, prompting critics of Netanyahu’s government to accuse him of fostering international prosecution by refusing to hold soldiers accountable for atrocities committed in Gaza under military law.

Such legal pursuit signals the onset of a "harvest season" for both military and political Israeli war criminals, threatening to isolate “Israel” internationally and diminish normalization efforts.

Israeli analysts argue that these trials send a "negative message" to the Israeli public, reflecting how isolated the country has become and how global public opinion has turned against its occupation practices.

They contend that this constitutes a form of entrapment for Israelis within their own borders, with mounting fear as these legal actions against soldiers involved in war crimes in Gaza intensify. This may force them into a life of seclusion, constantly pursued.

The Israeli military has issued multiple warnings to its officers and soldiers about the risk of arrest outside of “Israel,” even successfully assisting in the escape of soldiers from Brazil and Argentina following attempts to detain them on suspicion of war crimes.

In an editorial in early January 2025, the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post urged Israeli soldiers to stop posting about their actions in Gaza on social media, arguing that such posts only fuel hatred towards “Israel.” 

“'Stop sharing now': [Israeli Occupation Forces] reservists' posts are being twisted into Israeli hate,” the editor wrote “Israelis must exercise caution. Reservists and active-duty soldiers should think before they post.”

A report from the Israeli army's Information Security Unit reveals that soldiers are posting around one million items daily on social media, providing a wealth of material that can be used to target them abroad.

Haaretz reported on January 5, 2025, that “Israeli security agencies and government ministries are preparing to assist soldiers and reservists facing potential arrests abroad for participating in alleged war crimes in Gaza.”

A joint body consisting of the military prosecution, the foreign ministry, the National Security Council, and the Shin Bet (Israeli Internal Security Service) was set up to assess the level of risk to soldiers in various countries, following the discovery of organizations compiling evidence from social media posts, images, and videos shared by Israeli soldiers during the Gaza war.

Israeli ministers have also been warned to cease public statements on media and social networks that advocate for the starvation of Gaza’s population, for fear of being referred to international criminal courts.