Rights Group Files UK War Crimes Complaint Against Israeli Reservist Over Gaza Silo Demolition

The Hind Rajab Foundation has submitted a criminal complaint in the United Kingdom against Lidor Dafna, an Israeli reservist believed to be visiting the country. The complaint concerns alleged war crimes committed during Israel's war on Gaza.

Dafna served in the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion. He is accused of taking part in the May 2025 demolition of a flour-producing facility, at a time when Israel's blockade of Gaza was causing widespread starvation. The foundation says footage he posted on social media shows an Israeli military bulldozer tearing down wheat silos in southern Gaza.

Natacha Bracq, the foundation's head of litigation, told Al Jazeera why the filing is urgent. "If the authorities let him leave, he will go back and commit more crimes," she said. Al Jazeera has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment but had not received a response.

The Brussels-based organisation is named after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed with her relatives in January 2024 when Israeli forces fired on their vehicle in Gaza City. Her 45-year-old grandmother and namesake, speaking from Gaza, said families are not interested in Israel's internal investigations. "They just justify their positions to the world," she said, adding that she does not think anything actually happens on the ground.

The foundation builds its cases largely from material that Israeli soldiers publish themselves. Bracq said soldiers have posted tens of thousands of photos and videos from Gaza and Lebanon on TikTok, Instagram, X and Telegram, often showing their faces and names. The group follows the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, which sets standards for collecting, verifying, analysing and preserving digital material. Investigators geolocate each frame against satellite imagery and cross-reference military sources to link a suspect to a documented act.

Khaled al-Shouli, an international lawyer who represents Palestinian victims before the International Criminal Court, said such material can be valuable evidence but must be tested on its source, time and place. He cautioned that the appearance of a soldier at a location does not by itself prove that person committed a crime.

The foundation says its complaints have already led to action abroad. In Belgium, federal police detained and questioned two Israeli soldiers, who were later released, and the federal prosecutor has since referred the case to the International Criminal Court, according to Bracq. In Canada, former combat soldier Guy Hochman was held and questioned for six hours at Toronto Pearson Airport after a complaint accused him of war crimes and incitement to genocide. He later said his Canadian visa had been revoked.

The limits of this approach were shown in Brazil. In January 2025, authorities there ordered the arrest and investigation of an Israeli soldier accused of planting explosives and demolishing entire civilian neighbourhoods in Gaza. He left the country with help from Israeli authorities before he could be detained or questioned. Al-Shouli said the case showed "the gap between opening an investigation and the ability to secure the suspect's attendance." Bracq acknowledged that political will determines whether a warrant is executed, but noted that international crimes carry no statute of limitations.

The foundation is also widening its targets to companies that supply weapons to Israel, citing a recent criminal complaint in Poland against a state-owned TNT producer. Al-Shouli said he does not want to sell false hopes to victims' families, while Bracq said universal jurisdiction is the group's instrument, not its objective. "Our objective is justice and accountability," she said.