France grandmother files war crimes case over Gaza deaths of 2 French grandchildren
Jacqueline Rivault accuses Israeli officials of murder and genocide, with her case related to the deaths of Janna and Abderrahim Abudaher, aged 6 and 9
A grandmother has filed a criminal case in Paris, accusing Israeli authorities of killing her two French grandchildren in Gaza in October 2023, her lawyer told AFP on Friday.
The case, lodged with the Paris tribunal’s war crimes and crimes against humanity unit by lawyer Arie Alimi, calls for the appointment of a judge to open a formal probe.
The Human Rights League, a French civil liberties group, intends to join the case.
The victims’ French nationality could give French courts jurisdiction over the genocide accusations – claims Israel has dismissed as “scandalous”.
So far, such legal attempts in France have not succeeded.
The case involves the deaths of siblings Janna and Abderrahim Abudaher, aged six and nine, in a northern Gaza home struck by two Israeli F-16 missiles on October 24, 2023, 17 days after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.