In a move hailed as a breakthrough for international justice, Peru has officially launched an investigation into an Israeli soldier accused of taking part in the destruction of civilian areas in Gaza, as part of what rights groups are calling a campaign of genocide.

The case, brought forward by the Brussels-based "Hind Rajab" human rights organisation, is centred on a member of the Israeli army’s combat engineering corps. The soldier is alleged to have played a direct role in the deliberate levelling of neighbourhoods in Gaza during the first year of the war — destruction that left entire communities unrecognisable.

The complaint, supported by video evidence and open-source intelligence, calls on Peru to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction — a legal mechanism that allows states to prosecute perpetrators of grave international crimes, regardless of where those crimes were committed.

Named after a young Palestinian girl killed alongside her family and two medics while trapped under fire in Gaza, the Hind Rajab Foundation has been working to build legal cases against those it deems responsible for the devastation inflicted on Palestinian civilians. In this case, Peruvian lawyer Julio Cesar Arbizoo submitted the legal brief, marking what the foundation described as a “significant development” in holding individuals accountable.

The organisation argued that far from merely supporting combat operations, the engineering corps became a central pillar of the military's campaign, systematically razing homes and infrastructure and making large swaths of Gaza uninhabitable. “What we’re witnessing is not collateral damage. It’s the intentional erasure of a people,” the statement said.

While the world debates ceasefires and aid corridors, the wheels of justice may finally be turning — slowly, but with purpose. The foundation urged other countries, particularly signatories of the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute, to follow Peru’s lead in initiating legal proceedings against those accused of crimes against the Palestinian people.