Vacationing IDF Soldier Flees Brazil As He’s Pursued For Gaza ‘War Crimes’

In what may mark the start of a phenomenon echoing the enduring, worldwide pursuit of alleged rank-and-file World War II Nazi war criminals, an Israeli soldier vacationing with his family was forced to flee Brazil after a court directed police to investigate claims that he’d participated in war crimes in Gaza. Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar denounced the development, accusing Brazil of antisemitism.   

The court’s move came in response to a complaint filed in Brazil by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF). The pro-Palestinian group, named after a five-year-old girl said to have been killed by an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tank firing on her family’s car, had reportedly submitted substantial documentation to the court, including photos, videos, and geolocation identifiers. Taken together, they were offered as proof that IDF soldier Yuval Vagdani has placed explosives that were used to level “entire neighborhoods” in Gaza last November.

Urgent Alert
The #HindRajabFoundation has verified information that Israel is imminently attempting to smuggle suspected Israeli war criminal Yuval Vagdani out of Brazil, because of a Brazilian court order for police to take investigative measures against him. There are… pic.twitter.com/DiIigN4kC2

— The Hind Rajab Foundation (@HindRFoundation) January 4, 2025

“This individual actively contributed to the destruction of homes and livelihoods, and his own statements and behavior clearly align with the genocidal objectives in Gaza,” said HRF lead attorney Maira Pinheiro. According to Palestinian authorities, more than 45,800 Gaza residents have been killed in Israel’s enormously destructive war that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel. Aside from Israeli military action, Palestinians are also menaced by malnourishment and disease as Israel thwarts the flow of food and supplies into the strip. 

More to the point of Brazil’s interest in Vagdani: As of last August, Israel had damaged or destroyed nearly two-thirds of all buildings in Gaza – with the toll on housing unlike anything seen on Earth seen since World War II, according to a UN estimate via satellite analysis. 

The Israeli military’s campaign to significantly expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of #Gaza should be investigated as the war crimes of wanton destruction and collective punishment.

Read @Amnesty’s new investigation here: https://t.co/RNB6e6hpWj pic.twitter.com/5U71BCd65p

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) September 5, 2024

The Israeli foreign ministry took credit for helping Vagdani flee Brazil before investigators could close in on him. Vagdani’s father told Israel’s Channel 12 that an Israeli diplomatic office messaged one of his son’s travel companions to tip him off that a warrant had been issued. Vagdani’s whereabouts are unknown as of this writing, but the Israeli government said he achieved a “swift and safe departure from Brazil.” On Oct. 7, he was reportedly at the Nova music festival that came under Hamas attack, but he managed to run multiple kilometers to safety.  

New: Our analysis of social media videos found Israeli soldiers filming themselves in Gaza destroying civilian property, including a number of homes. We focused on combat engineers, who used D9 bulldozers and explosives to destroy civilian buildings.https://t.co/CgorfdSVlr pic.twitter.com/whWFBTTBoP

— Aric Toler (@AricToler) February 6, 2024

Deploying a common rhetorical tool used when the State of Israel and its military come under condemnation, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said Brazil’s move against Vagdani sprang from a hatred of all Jews. “What we are witnessing is a systematic and anti-Semitic campaign aimed at denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Countless international actors and many countries are complicit in this,” he said. 

To identify alleged perpetrators of war crimes, the Hind Rajab Foundation has capitalized on IDF soldiers’ notorious sharing of videos showing them engaged in all manner of wanton destruction in Gaza, laughing as they unleash the instant demolition of enormous housing complexes or sadistically trash small shops. There’s even a disturbing, recurring theme of IDF soldiers wearing the dresses and underwear of displaced Palestinian women, a practice now carrying over to the IDF’s war in Lebanon: 

I’ve been in four wars, as a soldier or reporter, and seen a lot of atrocities and abuses. But dressing up in the clothes of the women and girls you’ve killed or displaced is a sick and twisted practice wholly unique to the murderous perverts of the Israeli army. https://t.co/uAiJ4Gbciq

— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) October 31, 2024

On Sunday, the Israeli government said IDF soldiers should take the Brazil situation as a warning against sharing videos and photos of their destructive exploits on social media. “The foreign ministry draws Israelis’ attention to posts on social media about their military service, and to the fact that anti-Israel elements may exploit these posts to initiate futile legal proceedings against them,” the foreign ministry said Sunday. Of course, if such legal proceedings were entirely “futile,” the Israeli government may not have been in such a hurry to help Vagdani escape from Brazil. 

Brazil is one of 125 signatory-countries of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the International Criminal Court (ICC). “Any country that has signed the statute is compelled to ensure that crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide must be investigated and their perpetrators must be brought to justice,” Pinheiro told Brazil’s Metropoles. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct of the Gaza war. Netanyahu has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.” 

Israeli soldiers filmed themselves destroying a Palestinian shop in Ramallah and posted it on their social media accounts.
pic.twitter.com/G34nib4bOV

— Dr.Sam Youssef Ph.D.,M.Sc.,DPT. (@drhossamsamy65) February 11, 2024

An Israeli soldier has made a video that shows him vandalising a Palestinian-owned shop in Gaza and mocking its contents. pic.twitter.com/dkJOjXaQYd

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 11, 2023