Palestinians urge speedy ICC probe

PNA has presented court with a dossier on Israeli abuses during 2014 Gaza war

Palestinian lawyers and civil society groups yesterday urged the International Criminal Court to speed up inquiries and open a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

“Since two years, Palestine is under preliminary examination,” said lawyer Gilles Devers. “In Gaza, we think two years is too long.”

The Palestinian Authority (PNA) has National formally asked the ICC to investigate Israel, which is not a party to the Rome Statute that governs the court, for alleged war crimes.

It has presented the court with a dossier alleging abuses during the Gaza war in the summer of 2014, and for the Israeli occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territories.

In January 2015, the tribunal opened a preliminary examination into alleged abuses by all sides in the conflict. An ICC delegation visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in late 2016.

But Palestinian activists told reporters yesterday that the investigation has stalled, calling for both the ICC and the Palestinian National Authority to speed up efforts.

Lawyers representing 448 named victims, and more than 50 Palestinian trade unions and organisations, handed over to the ICC prosecutor’s office yesterday a thick dossier, which they said showed “clearly that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court have been committed”.

The Gaza conflict, in which, according to UN figures, 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, were killed in fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas and other factions, was clearly “a war crime” and the “ICC was competent” to handle it, said Devers, speaking in English.

Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had “an obligation” to move beyond a preliminary examination to a full investigation, he told reporters.