Hind Rajab Foundation Files Complaint in Vietnam Against Israeli Soldier

The Hind Rajab Foundation announced it has filed a criminal complaint with Vietnamese authorities against Israeli soldier Matan Girafi, accused of committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza and southern Lebanon, based on his self-documentation of participation in operations and his statements calling for the displacement of Palestinians, and demanding Vietnam detain him under universal jurisdiction.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) announced that it has filed a criminal complaint with Vietnamese authorities against Matan Girafi, a reserve soldier in the Israeli occupation army who is on vacation in the country, accusing him of committing "war crimes and acts of genocide." The foundation said in a statement that Girafi, who is the CEO of the Israeli Zionist organization Im Tirtzu, served in the 920th Infantry Battalion of the 769th Brigade, and documented his participation in military operations in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, including what it described as "unlawful destruction of civilian property." It added that the complaint is based on evidence of his involvement in the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Bureij and Maghazi camps in the center of the Strip and the Shujaiya and Rimal neighborhoods of Gaza City between December 2023 and January 2024, before he was transferred to southern Lebanon between October and November 2024. The foundation considered that these acts may constitute war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol I, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and may also amount to acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention. The foundation also accused Girafi of direct and public incitement to genocide, based on public statements in which he called for the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, justified the targeting of civilians, refused the entry of humanitarian aid, and promoted materials calling for a "new Nakba." It quoted Girafi as saying on February 1, 2024, that "Gaza's civilians are part of Hamas... we should not have mercy on them," and also quoted him on July 9, 2025, as saying that "there should be no agreement without emigration." The foundation called on Vietnamese authorities to detain Girafi and open an investigation, considering that Vietnam is obligated to investigate under the principle of universal jurisdiction. The foundation's director general, Diab Abu Jahjah, said that Girafi's responsibility "is not limited to his direct participation in crimes on the ground, but extends to his use of his public platform to call for the continuation and escalation of the genocide campaign." For her part, the foundation's head of litigation, Natasha Brak, said that "it is unacceptable that Girafi spends his vacation in Vietnam after his public participation in crimes and incitement to them." The foundation is named after a Palestinian child who was martyred along with 6 of her relatives in an Israeli attack targeting a car they were traveling in southwest of Gaza City on January 29, 2024.