A war crimes complaint has been filed in France against a former commander in the Israeli occupation army, Elitzur Gitler, over his role in attacks on civilians and protected sites during the genocide in Gaza, after an investigation tracked him to French soil, where he is competing in an international sporting event.
The complaint was filed on Wednesday by French member of parliament Thomas Portes under Article 40 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure. It is based on an investigation conducted by the Hind Rajab Foundation in partnership with the French group Urgence Palestine, which documents Gitler's involvement in operations targeting civilians and civilian objects in Gaza between November 2023 and April 2024. The investigation was prompted by information from the French Coordination for the Academic, Cultural and Sporting Boycott of Israel, which flagged the suspect's presence in the country.
Gitler is currently in France to take part in the 2026 Roundnet World Championship in Paris, held from September 2 to 6. The Hind Rajab Foundation and Urgence Palestine have called for the immediate opening of a preliminary investigation and for urgent provisional measures to prevent him from slipping back to Israel, to preserve the evidence, and to ensure the case can proceed.
According to the investigation, Gitler served as a platoon commander with the Lahav Company of the 9th Armored Battalion, part of the 401st Armored Brigade, during the genocide in Gaza. In that role, he sat within the chain of command responsible for directing tactical movements, coordinating fire support, and carrying out operational orders on the ground. The investigation details four specific incidents in which his unit was implicated in the systematic destruction of civilian life and infrastructure: the attack on the Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza City in November 2023, the destruction of Bani Suheila Square in the Khan Younis governorate in December 2023, the destruction of several buildings in the Hamad City area of Khan Younis in March 2024, and the demolition of the Hassan al-Banna Mosque and the Tiberias School in Khan Younis in March and April 2024.
These acts, the complaint argues, amount to crimes under the French Criminal Code, the UN Convention against Torture, the Fourth Geneva Convention and its First Additional Protocol, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the Genocide Convention.
Yet even with the suspect physically present on French soil, the path to holding him accountable is obstructed by France's own laws. Unlike cases of torture or enforced disappearance, where a suspect's mere presence is enough to trigger jurisdiction, prosecutions for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in France are bound by four restrictive conditions. Chief among them is a "habitual residence" requirement, which forces judges to establish a sufficient link between the suspect and France, a barrier that rights groups say plainly violates France's binding obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Convention to investigate and punish perpetrators regardless of their nationality or where they are. France remains one of the only EU states to maintain such strict obstacles, undermining its professed commitment to fighting impunity.
