Palestine submits files on Israeli war crimes to ICC

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has submitted files on Israeli war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Following a Thursday meeting with ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in The Hague, al-Maliki said he had delivered to the tribunal dossiers on the Israeli war on Gaza, the regime’s illegal settlement construction in the occupied territories as well as the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Tel Aviv’s custody.

The files were prepared by a 45-member committee, appointed in February by President Mahmoud Abbas, and chaired by Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Nabil Abu Zneid, the Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, said earlier the documents describe in detail the Israeli breaches of international law in Gaza and the West Bank.

The files also explain the ongoing Israeli occupation policies and illegal settlement construction across the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The new documents will help the ICC to open a full-scale investigation with a view to pressing crime charges against senior Israeli regime officials.

“Palestine is a test for the credibility of international mechanisms ... a test the world cannot afford to fail. Palestine has decided to seek justice, not vengeance,” Maliki said.

The senior Palestinian official further said he had reached an agreement with the prosecutors on a date for them to make a visit to Palestinian lands, without announcing an exact date.

“It depends on their ability to enter Palestinian territory without problems,” he said.

The move comes just days after a separate investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused Israel of committing war crimes in last summer's Gaza War.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reports say a team of ICC investigators is scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv by the end of month to examine reports of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Tel Aviv regime started its latest aggression against  the Gaza Strip in early July 2014. The war, which lasted for 50 days, claimed the lives of over 2,130 Palestinians, including many children and women, and injured some 11,000 others.

The Israeli regime is also pressing ahead with its illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories despite a global outcry.

Most countries and international organizations regard Israeli settlements as illegal since the territories were captured by the regime in a 1967 war and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements across the occupied territories.

JR/KA/MKA/HMV

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