Between November 2023 and March 2024, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper unit, known as the “Ghost Unit,” has been connected with reports of summary executions of Palestinian civilians in and around Gazan hospital facilities. One member of this sniper unit is reported to be an individual from Germany, who, according to ECCHR, allegedly committed international crimes in Gaza.

ECCHR calls on the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation into the alleged of international crimes committed by this individual, and into broader crimes committed in Gaza. 

ECCHR, in partnership with Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Haq has filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor. The complaint calls for a criminal investigation to be opened into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by a named individual from Germany, who reportedly served as a member of the 9th Platoon of the Auxiliary Company of the Israeli military’s 202nd Paratroopers Battalion, known as the “Ghost Unit”. 

The complaint is based on a documentary published in October 2024 by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, and further investigative research, which examined reports of summary executions and other serious violations of international law in and around the al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Given the named individual’s strong and continuing connections to Germany, and in compliance with Germany’s legal obligations, the Federal Public Prosecutor must open an investigation into the alleged crimes committed by the named individual. We are also requesting that the Federal Public Prosecutor opens a structural investigation into broader crimes committed in Gaza. 

In light of Israel’s unwillingness to genuinely investigate and prosecute these crimes, ECCHR calls on Germany to exercise its universal jurisdiction to ensure that impunity does not prevail for these crimes.

This case is part of a coordinated series of filings across different European states. Other complaints against soldiers from the same sniper unit have been filed in France and Italy, and investigations into members of the unit are have been opened in Belgium and South Africa. 

ECCHR has already filed requests to investigate and criminal complaints to the German Federal Public Prosecutor in connection with crimes committed against Palestinians twice before, namely in realtionin relation to the killing of the Abujadallah family in October 2023, and the killing of the Kilani family in 2014. Germany must take steps to prevent impunity for international crimes.