A Palestinian-Belgian national, and 13 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, filed on Wednesday a lawsuit against 14 Israeli military and politically officials including Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, former Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, and General Matan Vilani, and former Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, for “committing crimes against humanity and for committing war crimes in Gaza”.Israeli paper, Maariv, reported that the lawsuit focuses on Israel’s three-week offensive against the Gaza Strip which was launched in late December 2009.
The 70-page lawsuit is said to be partially based on the report of Judge Richard Goldstone who accused Israel of committing war crimes and called for prosecuting Israeli officials in international courts should Israel refuse to conduct a credible investigation into its army’s conduct during the war.
During the war, Israel bombarded civilians homes, educational facilities, UNRWA facilities, medical facilities and other forms of infrastructure.
1419 Palestinians were killed and nearly 6000 were injured; most of the casualties were civilians; women, children, infants and elderly, and dozens were members of the civil defense such as firefighters and medics.
