A 22-year-old man from Sandton has been accused of despicable war crimes against the Palestinian people.
In a scathing documentary by Al Jazeera, Aaron Bayhack was revealed to be part of an elite Israeli sniper unit that executed civilians in Khan Younis and Gaza City.
Al Jazeera reported that Bayhack was part of the 202 paratrooper battalion, which consists of roughly 18 men from various nations. Notably, one from Somalia was among them.
Bayhack and his team allegedly fired indiscriminately at civilians, including men, women, children, the elderly, and the wounded, in and around hospitals under attack in Gaza.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian movement, told the news outlet: “Israeli snipers directly targeted Al-Quds hospital with live ammunition.”
🧵1/19 EXCLUSIVE
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) October 4, 2024
In an unprecedented & biggest investigation into war crimes in Gaza, we expose the elite & secretive IDF sniper team, the Ghost Unit "Refaim" & their brutal executions of unarmed civilians
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A woman at a hospital that had been targeted told Al Jazeera that she had seen death the previous night. “As we were dying, we saw death itself. We have no where else to go. Where shall we go?”
In 2023, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) expressed deep worry over allegations that certain South African citizens and permanent residents had joined or contemplating joining the IDF.
It went on to state that such activity can potentially contribute to the violation of international law and the commission of other international crimes, putting them subject for prosecution in the country.
“Any person wishing to render foreign military assistance in Israel must first apply to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC)...Any person joining the IDF without the necessary permission is breaking the law and can be prosecuted.
“In addition, the South African Citizenship Act, 1995 (Act No. 88 of 1995) provides that any person who obtained South African citizenship by naturalisation in terms of that Act shall cease to be a South African citizen if he or she engages under the flag of another country in a war that the Republic does not support or agree with,” DIRCO said.
In the documentary, some of the footage is shot by the snipers. It shows the killing of numerous people who appear to be simply walking and unarmed.
One member of the battalion, a 22-year-old man, told the documentary crew that there is a line that Palestinians do not know about; anyone in his line of sight would be shot.
He said anyone of military age walking near the bombardment is a terrorist.
“Gaza is like Sodom. Those who like there are similar to the Amalek (the archetypal enemy of Jewish people and the symbol of evil in Jewish religion and folklore). That population is really like the Amalek,” he said.
IOL