Moroccan lawyers call for arrest of Israeli-Moroccan official over Gaza deaths

A group of lawyers in Morocco on Tuesday called on their judiciary to ask for an international arrest warrant to be issued against Israel's former National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat over the killing of Moroccan nationals in Gaza.

The four lawyers submitted the complaint to the public prosecutor’s office at the court of appeal in the capital Rabat over charges of "crimes against humanity" after four Moroccan girls died in the Israeli aggression on Gaza in May this year, The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

No details were given on the girls' ages or the reason why they were in Gaza.

Ben-Shabbat, who is originally from the Moroccan city of Sale, was present in the operations room during the bombing of Gaza alongside former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, according to the lawyers.

"The ball is now in the court of the Moroccan judiciary, and we will see how it will deal with the case," one of the lawyers, Khaled al-Sufyani told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"We will wait for an international order to be issued to arrest these three (Ben-Shabbat, Netanyahu and Kochavi), refer them for investigation and be tried in Morocco," he said, adding that evidence of the war crimes was provided and backed up with documents, photos and videos.

Ben-Shabbat was appointed as Israel’s National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff for National Security in November 2017 and stepped down in August this year.

Morocco and Israel normalised ties last year and established full diplomatic relations despite public anger.