Activists from the Brussels-based Hind Rajab foundation have called for the arrest of an Israeli soldier who it says is “currently present in Limassol” and whom it accuses of “committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide” in Gaza.

The foundation said it has submitted a formal complaint to Justice Minister Costas Fitiris, police chief Themistos Arnaoutis and attorney-general George Savvides demanding “the immediate arrest and detention” of the soldier, who they named as Ori Narkis.

It said that Narkis had “direct involvement” in the “destruction” of a primary school in the town of Beit Lahia, which is located at the northern end of the Gaza strip, while also being involved in “the forcible displacement” of the town’s civilian inhabitants.

A report on Narkis’ actions, it said, has been compiled using open-source intelligence, geolocated social media evidence and satellite imagery. It said that this “establishes a clear timeline of criminal conduct attributed to Narkis” between October 2024 and January 2025.

It went on to say that the school it accuses Narkis of destroying “served as a critical shelter for thousands of internally displaced Palestinians”, before adding that the school was “targeted after its occupants were forcibly removed”.

“Drone footage released by the Israeli military itself documents the coercive evacuation of civilians, where men were separated and detained and families were forced to march under the threat of drone strikes and artillery fire,” it said.

It added that after the school was evacuated, it was set on fire and that “social media posts by Narkis and his teammates document the burning of the Aleppo School and other nearby shelters”.

These actions, it said, “constitute severe violations of international humanitarian law and international criminal law”.

Foundation director-general Dyab Abou Jahjah said that “the presence of Ori Narkis in Cyprus is not just a logistical detail” but “a moral and legal imperative for the Cypriot state”.

“While the world watches the devastation in Gaza, alleged perpetrators of genocide are moving freely through Europe, believing that geography offers them immunity. Cyprus has a binding obligation under international law to act. There is no safe haven for war criminals,” he said.

He added that “if Cyprus fails to arrest Narkis, it becomes complicit in the culture of impunity that allows these atrocities to continue”.

Meanwhile, the foundation’s head of litigation Natacha Bracq said that “our investigation leaves no doubt”.

The school, she said, “was a civilian shelter, evacuated under threat of death and then burned to the ground to ensure the displaced could never return”.

“This was not collateral damage; it was a calculated strategy of erasure. The social media posts by Narkis and his unit serve as a confession of their participation in these crimes. The legal threshold for arrest and investigation has been met,” she added.

As such, the foundation demanded that the Republic of Cyprus issue “an immediate arrest warrant for Ori Narkis based on the evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide” and detain him “pending a full investigation into his role in the destruction” of the school.

The Hind Rajab foundation was named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza after her family car was shelled by an IDF tank after being left stranded alone in the vehicle for hours after the rest of her family had been killed by the IDF.