The Israeli soldier who was under investigation in Brazil for alleged war crimes in the war in Gaza, left the country with his friends before legal action could be taken against him, his family told Ynet, adding they were relieved after a tense period of time and were awaiting his return home. "He's out of there," his father said. "Everything will be fine."
Chairperson of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said he would hold an urgent classified meeting to discuss the "defense from legal persecution of soldiers abroad," on Monday.
"For months members of the committee and I have warned, time and again, that the judicial persecution under false accusations of war crime would not stop at the prime minister and defense minister and would spread to include IDF troops," Edelstein said.
"I am embarrassed for Brazil and its government which succumbed to the pro-Palestine legal terrorism," he said. "I expect to hear from representatives of the IDF and the Foreign Ministry, about their plans of action to defend our soldiers from sanctions and such criminal persecution."
Last November, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defense minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes committed in the fighting in Gaza.
The Brazilian federal court ordered an investigation into the Israeli after a claim was made by the Palestinian Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) which provided the court with documentation of the soldier's activity in the war in Gaza. The suspect was a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7.
According to the claim, the soldier, who was on a trip in Patagonia, was documented placing explosives that were used to demolish buildings where displaced Gazan's were sheltering.
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Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the fact that an Israeli was forced to flee Brazil under the cover of night so as to avoid arrest because he fought in Gaza, was "a colossal failure of an irresponsible government." Lapid asked how the Palestinians were able to work better than the government in the international arena and said a better public advocacy would have prevented such cases.
Lapid also slammed Foreign Minisiter Gideon Saar who did not comment on the risk to the IDF soldier while on his visit to Brazil but chose to defend the government after the opposition leader blamed its failings for the trouble Israelis who had served in the war may now face. Saar called Lapid irresponsible for blaming world antisemitism on the government.