A criminal complaint has been filed in Germany against a 25-year-old soldier with dual German-Israeli citizenship accused of killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the early months of the war.
The complaint was submitted on Wednesday by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) to the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, in collaboration with Palestinian NGOs.
The soldier, born in Munich, was identified in a five-month investigation published this week by Der Spiegel, The Guardian, ZDF, Paper Trail Media, and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.
The team examined the killing of six members of the Doghmosh family in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood on 22 November 2023. Survivors, death certificates, and geolocation data confirmed the victims’ identities.
One video shows 26-year-old Mohammed Doghmosh being shot and collapsing on a street. His younger brother Salem, 19, attempted to rescue him but was also shot dead. Their father, Montasser, 51, and a cousin tried to retrieve the bodies, but Montasser was also killed and the cousin was wounded.
Their bodies remained in the street until a brief ceasefire came into force two days later.
The investigation relied on an interview given by a US-born Israeli sniper from Chicago. He described his role and that of his German-born comrade.
In the video, he said: “It’s a question of distance. There is a line that we define. They don’t know where this line is, but we do.” He also credited the German sniper with taking the fatal shot against Salem.
Both soldiers belonged to the Ninth Platoon of the Israeli army’s 202nd Paratroopers Battalion. In the same interview, the American claimed his “team” killed between 100 and 120 Palestinians.
Further evidence came from a montage video uploaded to YouTube in early 2024 by another soldier in the unit. Set to dramatic music, it shows both Israeli snipers firing rifles with precision optics from a Gaza City building near where the Doghmosh family was killed.
ECCHR’s legal director, Wolfgang Kaleck, said the complaint seeks to ensure Germany upholds its responsibility to prosecute grave crimes committed by its nationals abroad.
“There is compelling evidence that unarmed Palestinian civilians were deliberately targeted. German prosecutors must act,” he said.