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Families of the hostages continue to pressure Israeli authorities to secure their release. (File)
Jerusalem:
About 100 representatives of Gaza’s hostages flew to The Hague on Wednesday to file charges of “crimes against humanity” against Hamas at the International Criminal Court.
Palestinian militants led by Hamas abducted about 250 hostages in the October 7 attack on Israel, and about 130 of them are still being held captive in Gaza, Israeli officials said.
Of those, 29 are believed to have died.
“This is not just our story. If we don’t stop this, tomorrow it will be the story of the whole world,” said Ofri Bivas, whose brother is one of the prisoners being held in Gaza. said.
Minutes before boarding a plane to The Hague, she said: “The whole of humanity must unite against the global army of terrorism, and Hamas is just one force in that mission.”
Haim Rubinstein of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said his organization plans to file charges against Hamas leaders with the ICC.
“We are the families of the hostages who have gone through and are still going through this horrible hell,” Rubinstein said in a video conference from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
“We will prosecute Hamas members and their collaborators and make them pay the heaviest price for the crimes against humanity they continue to commit.”
The Hamas attack that sparked the war killed about 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli statistics.
The Israeli response has killed at least 28,473 people, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Families of the hostages continue to press Israeli authorities to secure the release of the remaining prisoners.
Their latest attempt came as Israeli intelligence chief David Balnea met with CIA director William Burns in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday to discuss plans to halt Qatar-brokered fighting in Gaza. Ta.
The talks, which also include Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, are aimed at securing a cease-fire before Israel moves ahead with a ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has fled. This is part of our efforts.
The ICC is the world’s only independent court established to investigate the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, on Monday expressed concern about a possible Israeli ground invasion of Rafah and called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza.
Khan said on X (formerly Twitter) that his office’s investigation into events in Gaza “is proceeding as a matter of extreme urgency.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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