The families of nine Israeli victims of last month's Hamas bombings have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing the group of possible war crimes.
According to lawyer Francois Zimeray, the families also want Hamas to be punished for genocide and the ICC to issue an international arrest warrant for its leaders.
On October 7, Hamas carried out violent operations, according to Israeli sources, killing around 1,400 people.
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"The complaint concerns victims who were all civilians," Zimeray said, adding that several of them had attended the "Tribe of Nova" rave party, which was also a music festival.
"The complaint states that the Hamas terrorists do not deny the crimes committed, which they have amply documented and broadcast, and that the... facts cannot therefore be disputed," the official said.
Zimeray told Radio Classique in France that he was always leery of "excessive qualifications" for events.
However, he and his legal team have demonstrated that the "genocide" charge "holds up before the law," he claimed.
Any individual or group may present a case to the ICC, which is based in The Hague, but it is up to the court's prosecutor to initiate an investigation.
It launched an investigation investigating Israel, as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions, for suspected war crimes in the Palestinian territories in 2021.
Karim Khan, the ICC's prosecutor, has stated that any suspected war crimes committed during the ongoing conflict will fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
However, ICC teams have been unable to access Gaza or Israel, which is not a member of the ICC.
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