France to charge French-Israelis committing crimes in Gaza

The French Foreign Ministry announced last week that French-Israeli soldiers implicated in war crimes in Gaza will face legal action, Haaretz has reported.

The announcement, which has not been widely reported, follows pressure from the left-wing France Unbowed party, after the release of videos on social media of Israeli soldiers engaged in violations against Palestinian captives. In one 45-second video, five Israeli soldiers are shown surrounding blindfolded Palestinian captives, whose hands are tied, and all of whom are wearing matching white coveralls.

Following these accusations, Thomas Portes, of the left-wing France Unbowed party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, alerted both the Paris public prosecutor’s office and the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, presenting the video as proof of “complicity in war crimes and acts of torture” in Gaza by French-Israeli dual nationals.

In response to pressure from multiple lawmakers in Mélenchon's party, the French Foreign Ministry held a press conference last week, during which it issued a statement reaffirming France’s jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute French citizens for offenses committed overseas. This jurisdiction extends to crimes linked to Israel’s war on Gaza.