Sri Lanka (Quds News Network)- The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has submitted a formal denunciation to Sri Lankan authorities against an Israeli-American soldier over his “involvement in war crimes” in the Gaza Strip, including the “unlawful destruction” of civilian infrastructure. It is the first such case filed against an American citizen outside the US.
According to the Belgium-based pro-Palestine group which leads a legal push against Israeli soldiers’ war crimes in Gaza, Jake Burkons, a dual national of Israel and the United States (Texas), served in Company D of the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, part of the 7th Armoured Brigade of the Israeli army.
HRF has established that Jake Burkons is currently present in Sri Lanka, where he has been travelling after the genocide in Gaza.
The 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion has emerged, according to HRF, as a central operational unit in the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure across Gaza. While nominally tasked with engineering functions such as mine clearance and fortification, its activities in practice have consisted of the systematic demolition of civilian areas.
HRF has documented at least 65 controlled demolitions carried out by the battalion between October 2023 and mid-2025. These operations targeted residential buildings, mosques, agricultural land, and industrial facilities. The unit has also been implicated in attacks on hospitals and in the unlawful detention and ill-treatment of civilians.
These actions form part of a broader pattern of conduct aimed at rendering large parts of Gaza uninhabitable and facilitating territorial fragmentation, including through the creation of military corridors such as the so-called “Morag Axis” in southern Gaza, HRF noted.
HRF’s investigation has established Jake Burkons’ direct connection to at least one incident of unlawful destruction in Khan Younis in October–November 2025.
Burkons himself published visual evidence on his social media accounts showing his presence inside Gaza, including in Khan Younis and Rafah. In one instance, he is seen holding a detonation cable inside a destroyed civilian building alongside fellow soldiers, indicating active participation in a controlled demolition.
In another, he shared footage of such a demolition operation, geotagged to Khan Younis and marked with his company’s insignia.
The acts documented in relation to Jake Burkons and his unit may constitute multiple war crimes under international law, HRF said, including: extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity, intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, attacking or bombarding undefended buildings and civilian areas.
The HEF has submitted a formal denunciation to the Sri Lankan authorities, urging them to take appropriate legal action in accordance with their obligations under international law.
The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed more than 80 complaints in 28 countries against Israeli soldiers complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians during the genocide in Gaza, to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Since January 2026, the pro-Palestine group said it has “escalated its legal work across multiple jurisdictions—filing cases, triggering investigations, and restricting the ability of Israeli perpetrators from moving freely.”
“Despite significant challenges, this work has never stopped.”
HRF said it has now filed over 80 complaints in 28 countries, including Brazil, Chile, Australia, Austria, Greece, Italy, US, and Canada. It filed more than 50 in 2025 alone.
https://x.com/hindrfoundation/status/2040359147221200992?s=46&t=t_-JFgpXqgMIkVsuBfWELw
The HRF is named after Rajab, the five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in a barrage of Israeli bullets in Gaza in 2024 during Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people. Her killing has become symbolic of the widespread violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israeli forces.
For two years, Israeli soldiers have taken to social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to boast of their attacks in Gaza.
HRF has used that very evidence to pursue war crimes charges against them across the world.
“You can’t massacre people, film yourself doing it, broadcast it to the world, confess to your actions, and then simply go about your life, sitting next to me at a cafe in Brussels,” Dyab Abou Jahjah, HRF's president, said. “We are going after war criminals wherever they go."
By early 2025, the foundation had gathered more than 8,000 pieces of evidence related to war crimes by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, Abou Jahjah revealed.
“The evidence is there," he said. "The challenge is to turn it into a legal case."
HRF's work focuses on offensive litigation and a two-pronged accountability strategy, targeting two categories of soldiers: Israelis who hold the nationality of a country where a court case can be initiated, and travelling soldiers who are not nationals of their countries of destination.
The Hind Rajab Foundation brings cases against state officials, senior commanders, as well as lower-ranking soldiers.
In its first five months, the Hind Rajab Foundation achieved two major breakthroughs.
The first was in Cyprus, where a prosecutor opened an investigation against an Israeli reservist soldier after a case that the foundation filed against him.
The Israeli state helped the soldier flee Cyprus, according to Abou Jahjah and Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
In its complaint, the foundation supplied Cypriot authorities with evidence, including his own video footage showing him burning a civilian home and property in Gaza while stating: "We will not stop until we burn all of Gaza."
A few weeks later, the foundation initiated a similar case, this time in Brazil against another Israeli soldier who was visiting the country on holiday. The Hind Rajab Foundation said that the Israeli state again helped the soldier flee Brazil before he could be arrested.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, acting on a power of attorney granted by families of Palestinian victims, accused the soldier of taking part in the destruction of entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, which it said amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.
They submitted 500 pages of video evidence as well as photographs and geolocation data documenting his participation in the crimes.
Acting in response to the criminal complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation, the Federal Court of the Federal District, following a probe by the prosecutor, issued an urgent order for the police to investigate and take action against the suspect.
Abou Jahjah said the Brazil case marked a historic precedent. It was a court order, by a judge, which would have been followed by an arrest warrant had the suspect been on Brazilian soil.
In the aftermath of the Brazil case, Israeli media published guidelines for travelling soldiers to avoid arrest for war crimes, including refraining from sharing social media posts showing evidence of unlawful actions.
The Israeli military also announced new rules to blur the photos and conceal the identities of soldiers of all ranks in publicity materials.
In addition to using national court systems, Hind Rajab Foundation lawyers filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against more than 1,000 soldiers in October 2024, including evidence that Abou Jahjah said will remain in the court's archive permanently and assist with related cases.
