Israel’s 2014 invasion of Gaza devastated the coastal enclave and left over 2,000 people dead. | Photo: Reuters

by teleSUR

Palestinian leaders say they have solid evidence Israel has committed widespread human rights abuses.

Palestinians will hand evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court Thursday as part of a preliminary investigation into the 2014 invasion of Gaza.

“The files to be presented to the court refer to war crimes and crimes committed by individuals of the Israeli leadership,” the Palestinian Liberation Organization said in a statement.

Prominent peace activist Mustafa Barghouthi, head of the Palestine National Initiative, said the files include hundreds of pages of evidence against Israeli forces.

“Our aim is to establish war crimes in order that an investigation by the chief prosecutor’s office is carried out and to remove immunity from Israel and its leaders, achieve justice, apply human rights conventions, protect Palestinians and hold criminals accountable for their crimes,” he said, according to Ma’an News Agency.

The ICC case is still in its early stages, but could potentially lead to indictments against Israeli officials if the court finds evidence of human rights abuses.

The Palestinian submissions to the ICC are unlikely to speed up the court’s preliminary investigation, but could reinforce United Nations allegations of Israeli war crimes during its assault on Gaza last year. Earlier this week a damning U.N. report accused both Hamas and Israel of human rights abuses stemming from the 2014 conflict that left over 2000 people dead – almost all Palestinian civilians.

Israel has disputed the U.N.’s findings and argued Palestinians shouldn’t be entitled to petition the ICC for an investigation, as Palestine isn’t universally recognized as a state. Israeli officials have argued any international investigation into alleged Israeli human rights abuses will undermine peace talks – a stance widely dismissed by both Palestinian leaders and human rights groups.

Yet allegations of Israeli abuses don’t just stem from the Gaza invasion. Many of the documents set to be handed over to the ICC reportedly include details of allegations of Israeli violations of international law in the West Bank. One document alone from the think tank Applied Research Institute includes nearly 500 pages of concerns stemming from Israel’s controversial West Bank settlements. The settlements have been labeled illegal by the U.N., while Palestinians say they are a major hurdle for peace talks.

“It certainly draws a grim picture of what Israel is doing and why we think that there are reasonable grounds,” said Palestinian Foreign Ministry official Ammar Hijazi of the file Palestine plans to submit to the ICC. (Al Bawaba/File)

by Press TV

Palestinian officials are planning to submit their first file to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open criminal proceedings against the Israeli regime.

The file will be sent to the ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on June 25, and will focus on the violations of international law by Israel, Palestinian Foreign Ministry official, Ammar Hijazi, told reporters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.

The move is part of Palestinians’ attempt against the Tel Aviv regime and the crimes it has committed against Palestinian territories, including crimes committed during the latest Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip last year.

The file is “only general, it’s only statistical,” Hijazi said, adding, “But it certainly draws a grim picture of what Israel is doing and why we think that there are reasonable grounds… for the prosecutor to start (her) investigations.”

He further noted that Palestinian officials would submit the details of specific incidents if Bensouda decides to proceed with inquiries.

Bensouda’s office has already launched a preliminary examination into the crimes that took place since June 2014, when an Israeli-fueled unrest led to another war between Israel and the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority officially joined the ICC on April 1, becoming the 123rd member of The Hague-based court.

The Palestinian decision to join the ICC was made in January after decades of negotiations with Israel failed to put an end to Tel Aviv’s policy of expanding illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian lands.

Israel started its latest war on the Gaza Strip in early July last year. The offensive ended on August 26, 2014 with a truce that took effect through indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, were killed in Israel’s 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 people were also injured.

Palestinians join The Hague-based International Criminal Court, setting scene for potential legal action against Israel.

Palestinians reject the argument the Israeli officials cannot be tried at the ICC, because Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Statute [EPA]

Palestine has formally attained membership of the International Criminal Court, a move that could open the door to possible war crime indictments against Israeli officials despite uncertainty over its wider ramifications.

The accession on Wednesday is another landmark in the Palestinian diplomatic and legal international campaign, which gained steam in 2014.

The Palestinians moved to join The Hague-based court on January 2, in a process that was finalised on Wednesday, setting the scene for potential legal action.

“Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and other violations of international law,” said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from The Hague, said despite their membership, the Palestinians may still have to wait for the ICC to begin investigating Israelis accused of war crimes.

“This is such a heavily politicised case, that the court will have to think hard before taking action against the Israelis. It may be years before we something.”

Diana Chehade, a former ICC official, told Al Jazeera, preliminary examinations could be completed by the end of this year, but the court would not investigate cases already being looked in to by other judicial institutions.

“Based on the principle of complimentarity, the ICC would not investigate if an Israeli judicial institution is investigating a war crime to ICC standards,” Chehade said.

‘ICC train left’

The ICC has long been brandished as one of the Palestinians’ doomsday measures, along with threatening to end vital West Bank security coordination with Israel.

The notion of ICC investigations is outrageous to Israel, and Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian unity government – including Hamas which the Jewish state considers “terrorist” – of “manipulating” the court.

Israel retaliated swiftly and cut off millions of dollars in monthly tax payments it collects on behalf of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

The notion of forming a Palestinian state by negotiations was buried during this month’s election campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu, who pledged one would not be established on his watch, were he to retain his post as prime minister.

Netanyahu meanwhile released the held funds, which constitute two-thirds of the PA’s income, excluding foreign aid.

Some Israeli media reported that in exchange for unfreezing the money the Palestinians agreed to refrain from filing complaints to the ICC on April 1.

“It’s a huge lie. Taxes have nothing to do with our ICC approach. The ICC train already departed,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organisation.

‘Absurd’ measures

April 1, however, will be primarily ceremonial, with Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki receiving a copy of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.

While some Palestinian officials announced the date as the day they would file complaints against Israelis, in reality it is more likely they will wait, as state members are only able to draw the court’s attention to specific cases.

In addition, they will be holding on to see the outcomes of a preliminary probe launched by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on January 16.

At the same time that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sought ICC accession, he also sent the court documents authorising the prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes that took place in Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014.

The unrest in June escalated to the summer war between Israel and Gaza fighters, which left dead 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side.

So far, no ICC investigation of Israeli officials has been launched and no time framework has been set for one.

But the Palestinians are confident they will happen sooner rather than later, considering “all the attention to Palestine” at the ICC.

The Palestinians reject the argument the Israeli officials cannot be tried at the ICC, because Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, maintaining the court can also investigate crimes committed on the territory of member states.

“It’s absurd for the ICC to ignore international law and agreements, under which the Palestinians don’t have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel,” Netanyahu said in January following the announcement of the preliminary probe.

Among the forms of Israeli retaliation is legal assistance for victims of Palestinian attacks.

In February, a US jury found the PA and PLO responsible for six attacks which killed dozens and ordered them to pay the victims’ families more than $650 million in damages.