’This step is crucial for the legal proceedings and underscores the gravity of the charges against Hamas leadership.’

The Hostages Families Forum, an organization representing the relatives of hostages kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas from southern Israeli communities during the October 7 attacks, will submit a comprehensive complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, on behalf of released hostages, families of hostages and victims of the attacks.

This legal action is spearheaded by the Forum together with the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. They will be represented by top leading international criminal lawyers.

A press conference will be held in The Hague on Wednesday with the participation of almost 100 representatives of families of hostages, as well as Hamas captivity survivors, who are flying to the Dutch city which is the seat of the ICC as well as of the government and parliament.

It will include statements from Hamas captivity survivor Raz Ben Ami*, whose husband Ohad remains captive in Gaza, as well as statements from Gali Dalal, a survivor of the NOVA music festival whose brother Guy Dalal was kidnapped. other Hamas captivity survivors and the legal team.

‘’This step is crucial for the legal proceedings and underscores the gravity of the charges against Hamas leadership. The short-term objectives of this submission include the issuance of arrest warrants for the implicated leaders of Hamas. The charges detailed in the complaint encompass taking hostages, enforced disappearance, crimes of sexual violence, torture, and more severe allegations,’’ explained Liat Bell Sommer, head of international media of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages jn a barbaric rampage on October 7. It is believed that 130 hostages remain in Gaza. In a joint operation by the police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit, the Shin Bet security agency, and IDF in Rafah, southern Gaza, two hostages, Louis Har and Fernando Marman, were rescued and brought back to Israel in the night of Sunday to Monday.

The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 29 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively, as well as the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014.