Ex-hostages, families visit world court, demand arrest of Hamas leaders
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Grieving mother Doris Liber said Wednesday she flew from Israel to the International Criminal Court in hopes of getting justice for son Guy Illuz, who died in captivity after being shot in the back in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.
Liber, a native of New York who lives in Israel, was among 100 former hostages and families of hostages who visited the Netherlands with lawyers who presented prosecutors with more than 1,000 pages of evidence and called for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders on charges including genocide.
“I do believe that if we don’t stop this kind of evil, it will expand and it will get to any place, to every place,” Liber said as she stood in a cold, windswept parking lot near the global court.
The visit was the latest step in efforts by Israelis to seek justice for victims of the terrorist attacks, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.
Shelly Aviv Yeini, a lawyer for the group that organized Wednesday’s visit, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said the evidence includes details supporting “allegations of genocide, taking hostages, enforced disappearances, torture, gender-based violence and sexual violence. It’s a very detailed submission and I hope it can help the prosecutor in delivering justice.”
The families arrived in buses, many of them clutching photos of their loved ones and small bunches of tulips. Waiting were a few hundred supporters who braved rain and strong winds as they waved Israeli flags and chanted: “Bring them home, now!”
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is already investigating alleged crimes committed by both sides in the conflict.
Khan said his probe “is being taken forward as a matter of the utmost urgency, with a view to bringing to justice those responsible” for crimes falling under the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute.
He also called for “the immediate release of all hostages.”
Another member of the delegation in The Hague was Ofri Bibas, sister of the hostage Yarden Bibas who was kidnapped Oct. 7 along with his wife Shiri, and sons 4-year-old Ariel and baby Kfir.
Kfir Bibas is the youngest hostage held by Hamas, and was just 9 months old when he was kidnapped. Last month, his family members held several events to mark what they called “the saddest birthday in the world.”
In The Hague, Liber said she does not know if she will ever see her 26-year-old son Guy’s body and now she is devoting herself to making sure that one of his close friends, who is still a hostage, is freed.
“I’m here for him. Because if there is anything that I know for sure, it’s that Guy would want me to do. So I’m doing as hard as I can to bring him back,” she said.