A statement by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Global Legal Action Network (Glan) said the pair were in the country to attend a music festival and that legal proceedings were ongoing.

“The suspects were identified and arrested with a clear show of force at the Tomorrowland festival in Boom,” the groups announced on Monday.

HRF director Dyab Abou Jahjah stated: “Within the framework of the long fight for accountability, this is a major milestone. This is the first time that a European country acknowledges universal jurisdiction against Israeli soldiers and acts upon it in a forceful way, arrests them, and brings them to a police station to interrogate them.”

Dearblah Minogue, Glan’s senior lawyer who worked on the case with HRF, noted the arrests are “the biggest step for accountability since the beginning of the genocide, because law enforecement in Europe actually took action and arrested some suspects”.

“I think we will now see a domino effect across Europe and around the world,” she told Middle East Eye, explaining that the accusations brought against the two soldiers include the use of human shields and wanton destruction.

The evidence was collected from the soldiers’ own social media feed.

“One of them posted videos of his unit blowing up property in Gaza and Lebanon,” added Minogue.

“The other posed next to a Palestinian who was being used as a human shield by his unit.”

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office on Monday said it received two complaints on Friday and Saturday from the HRF and Glan, concerning “serious violations of international humanitarian law allegedly committed in the Gaza Strip by two members of the Israeli army” who were in Belgium to attend the Tomorrowland festival.

The prosecutor’s office announced it has determined that it might have jurisdiction on the case based on the new Article 14/10 of the Preliminary Title of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which entered into force on 28 April 2024. The article grants Belgian courts jurisdiction over crimes committed outside Belgium based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention against Torture of 1984.

“In light of this possible jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office instructed the police to locate the two individuals mentioned in the complaint and to proceed with their questioning. After the interviews, they were released,” it said, adding that no further information will be provided at this stage of the investigation.

The HRF is a Brussels-based NGO focused on taking international legal action for war crimes committed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. Its founder Dyab Abou Jahjah has told MEE that it has more than 8,000 pieces of evidence documenting war crimes by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

It has pursued war crimes cases against Israeli soldiers and officials in Europe and Latin America, but this is the first time its efforts have led to arrests.

“The Hind Rajab Foundation and Glan welcome this breakthrough with determination and humility,” they said in a press release, adding, “We will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to pursue the investigation fully and independently. Justice must not stop here – and we are committed to seeing it through.”

The arrests came on the same day Belgium’s King Philippe described the situation in Gaza as “a disgrace to humanity”. He stated in speech on Sunday that Belgium backs calls by the UN for “an immediate end to this unbearable crisis”.

“For the first time, the Israeli army admits that its forces are significantly depleted. It estimates a shortage of around 7,500 soldiers,” the Hebrew-language daily Maariv said.

According to the report, the army is currently lacking 300 platoon commanders in combat units across its ground forces.

The army admitted that it has been “difficult to convince capable soldiers to join the officer training program,” and said it had resorted to appointing experienced sergeants as acting platoon commanders to fill the gap.

Maariv reported that another shortfall lies in company-level leadership.

“In recent months, the army has been forced to assign officers to roles in both regular and reserve units who have not completed the official company commander course,” the newspaper added.

As for the war in Gaza, Maariv noted that “a significant number of officers and commanders have been killed,” and that “hundreds have been injured.”

Commanders in both regular and reserve units told the newspaper that the leadership crisis extends beyond platoon and company levels, reaching battalion commanders, who bear a heavy combat burden while remaining away from home and family.

Many battalion commanders have expressed interest in retiring due to workload and extended deployments, the paper noted.

Despite more than 21 months since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinian resistance factions continue to conduct well-planned ambushes in the area, inflicting casualties on Israeli forces, showcasing Tel Aviv’s inability to achieve its war objectives.

Israel maintains strict censorship on reporting its military losses in Gaza and has not published an updated toll for its dead and wounded, prompting speculation that actual figures may be significantly higher.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.