France’s anti-terror prosecutors are set to investigate “complicity in genocide” and “incitement to genocide” over French-Israelis suspected of having blocked air intended for war-torn Gaza, a source close to the case said Friday.
The investigation comes after the Jewish French Union for Peace (UFJP) and a French-Palestinian victim filed a legal complaint in November, levelling accusations of "organizing, participating in and calling for the participation in concrete activities to block humanitarian aid" for Gaza, "including physically preventing the passage of trucks at border checkpoints controlled by the Israeli army".
Their complaint targeted alleged French members of pro-Israel groups "Israel is forever" and "Tzav-9".
It was not immediately clear how many people had been accused.
Two lawyers for the plaintiffs, Damia Taharraoui and Marion Lafouge, told AFP they were happy a probe had been launched into the events in January 2024, when they said "no one wanted to hear anything about genocide".
The source close to the case said prosecutors last month urged a probe into events alleged to have happened at the Nitzana crossing point between Egypt and Israel, and the Kerem Shalom one from Israel into Gaza.
Rights groups, lawyers and in recent months some Israeli historians have described the Gaza war as "genocide".
But Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II, vehemently rejects the term.
No court has so far ruled the ongoing conflict is a genocide.
But in rulings in January, March and May 2024, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest judicial organ, told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including through allowing in urgently needed aid.
