Palestinian family sues French technology company for complicity in war crimes

A Palestinian family has filed a lawsuit against French company Exxelia Technologies over charges of complicity in war crimes.

The Shuheiber family, represented by the Paris-based law firm Ancile Avocats, lost eight-year-old Afnan, nine-year old Wassim and ten-year-old Jihad on 17 July 2014 when a rocket landed on their roof in Gaza where they were feeding birds.

In the debris, the family found a component which read Eurofarad France. Experts have since determined that the component is a Hall effect sensor made by Exxelia Technologies.

Since the house does not appear to have been a legitimate military target, the attack which killed the three children may constitute a war crime.

The family’s lawyer Joseph Breham said that they decided to file the complaint in France as it would be useless to file it in Israel.

According to the lawsuit, the company sold the component to Israel with knowledge that it would be part of a missile and with knowledge that it was susceptible to be used to commit a war crime.