Yuval Vagdani, the former IDF soldier, who is wanted in Brazil following complaints by a pro-Palestinian organization that claimed that he committed "war crimes" in Gaza, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning.
After he landed, Vagdani told Channel 12 News: "I won’t repeat the mistake I made. I will not be going back to Brazil. I hope that others learn from my mistakes."
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), based in Brussels, filed a complaint against the former soldier in a Brazilian court, after an arrest warrant was issued in his case, and Vagdani managed to escape to Argentina. From there, with the help of the Foreign Ministry and Kadima Council, he was transferred to Miami. This morning he returned to Israel and met with his family.
HRF, which realized that the soldier had fled to Argentina, filed a lawsuit against him there as well, but the move was carried out after he had already left for Miami.
According to the war crimes investigation, which spanned more than 500 pages, Vagdani is suspected of "involvement in the destruction of a residential building in the Gaza Strip, using explosives outside of a combat situation" in November.
The organization claimed that the demolition was carried out "not in combat," on structures that served as shelter for Palestinians displaced from their homes
Vagdani, a 21-year-old discharged soldier who served in Givati's Tzabar Battalion and survived the massacre at the Nova party in Re’im, received the notice of the arrest warrant from the Israeli Consulate, and within a few hours managed to cross the border with his friends who were traveling with him.