Cape Town - Aid organisation, Gift of the Givers, is engaging with lawyers to lay charges of war crimes against humanity against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers made the announcement at a media event at the Capetonian Hotel on Monday night.
Sooliman is preparing more aid for Gaza which will include a hundred-strong medical team, counsellors, and medical experts who specialise in orthopaedics to assist those who lost limbs as a result of Israeli attacks.
On November 16, Gift of the Givers head in Gaza, Ahmed Abbasi and his brother Dr Mustafa Abbasi joined the list of casualities of the Israeli attacks. They died after the building housing the mosque where they had performed their pre-drawn prayer, came under fire from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
Sooliman said: “We have three trucks at the borders, waiting to go in and we have another 10 trucks waiting to be filled.”
“We have 100 medical personnel, all highly skilled, surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, paediatricians, gynaecologists and we have an entire counselling team and psychologists and people who specialise in artificial limbs because we have a lot of children have lost their limbs due to the bombs.”
He added that the Aid organisation was laying charges against Israel.
“We are announcing that we are charging the Israeli government with war crimes against humanity, we have a special legal team and the legal teams have already sent a message to the government and they are in contact with a French advocate who is leading the charge against Israel.
“We already have 50 South African lawyers on our team and more and more lawyers across the world are joining the team.
“We have put in an official complaint, for our team members who have lost 80 personnel, Mohammed Abbasi and his brother who were killed.
“The targeting has been very specific, they have taken out heads of universities, scientists, medical personnel, teachers, to leave behind people who are not that skilled.
Sooliman added medical care was a priority at this stage with only nine out of 35 hospitals which are functional.
“Yesterday (Sunday), 20 South Africans came out of Gaza. They have been waiting since the first week of the war,” he added.
Also present at the engagement was Palestinian national, Ayah Jaber from Gaza, who has been living in Joburg for a decade. She said she had lost 50 family members in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and that many were still buried underneath the rubble.
Jaber who sat alongside Sooliman became emotional while speaking about her loss.
“The struggle is never going to stop, we are praying on this side, I am very grateful to be part of an organisation that helps inside of Gaza,” she said.
“I got the news of my cousin, her newborn and everyone in her family whose home was bombed. They got bombed, every single person is dead.
“The people who are alive now, they are going through the bombing, the hunger, they do not have water, they do not have electricity.”
According to Al Jazeera, following a short truce and ceasefire, 105 hostages out of the 240 people who were taken during an October 7 Hamas attack had been reunited with their families.
Euronews reported that the Gaza fatalities surpasses 15 200, 70%.
Sooliman has been voted as 2023 Daily Trust African of the Year this week.