In July 2014, six members of Ismail Ziada’s family were killed in an airstrike during Israeli’s 51-day assault on Gaza. On Tuesday, a judge in The Hague told him he has no right to seek justice from the two Israeli military officers most directly responsible for the horrific death of his family — Benny Gantz and Amir Eshel.

Ismail Zeyada, a Dutch citizen of Palestinian origin, has started a civil lawsuit holding two Israeli commanders responsible for the attack on his family home in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. Six of Ziada’s family members were killed in the July 2014 attack: his mother (70), three of his brothers, his sister-in-law and a 12-year old nephew. Zeyada’s attorney, well-known human rights lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, says, “You can’t bomb a house inhabited by civilians. Deliberately killing six of them, without necessity, is considered a war crime.”