Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expedite investigations and pursue legal action against Israeli war criminals responsible for war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories.
Abbas met in Ramallah on Saturday with the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, and asserted the need to launch investigations into Israel's targeting of civilians, especially children, women, and the elderly.
He briefed the Prosecutor on Israel's violation of the sanctity of hospitals and shelters, the demolition of homes with civilians inside, the crimes of settler-colonial expansion, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and various other violations of international law and international humanitarian law.
- Cases handover
In 2014, the Palestinian Authority (PA) handed over files to the ICC on multiple Israeli crimes during the war on Gaza.
A year later, the Court opened a preliminary investigation, and in 2021, it approved an inquiry into the commission of "Israeli war crimes" in the Palestinian territories.
Palestine presented three cases at the ICC, including the aggression against Gaza in 2014, during which Israel used excessive force, prohibited weapons, and ordered massacres and killing of civilians.
Another case concerns the Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons and includes ill-treatment of captives and their families and medical neglect that led to the death of some of them.
Furthermore, there is the case against Israeli settlement, including illegal construction on Palestinian land and settlers' terrorism, which led to the killing of Palestinian civilians.
The Palestinians will now submit new files about the current war.
- Delayed justice
For years, the Palestinians have been documenting Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said during his meeting with Khan on Saturday that delaying justice is an absence of justice itself.
Shtayyeh added that the ICC should be for sentencing and deterrence, asserting that for 75 years now, Israel has been acting like it is above the law.
He explained that the responsibility of the Criminal Court is not a moral issue but a legal one.
The Authority wants the Criminal Court to investigate the ongoing war in Gaza and previous wars and inspect all other violations in the West Bank.
- Comprehensive war
The Authority considers that the Israeli war on the Palestinians is comprehensive and not only in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli displacement policy targets Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as part of an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian issue.
Since Oct. 7, the West Bank witnessed an escalation in Israeli aggression, which included shutting down the West Bank governorates, deploying more military barriers, and launching massive incursions, whether during the day or the night, into most areas.
Israel began using drones to target Palestinians. It also killed and arrested dozens of them, demolished infrastructure, and attacked civilians in their homes.
On Saturday, Israel killed a Palestinian near the town of Tal, west of Nablus.
The Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that Israel shot and killed a civilian in Nablus at the al-Murabbaa checkpoint. The Israeli forces prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching him before arresting him while he was injured.
- Israel arrests 3,415 Palestinians
Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed about 250 Palestinians and arrested more than 3,400 in the West Bank. The apprehensions included various areas of Nablus, Tubas, Jenin, Hebron, and Qalqilya and were accompanied by widespread sabotage and home destruction.
The Commission of Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club said that the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 12 Palestinians, including a girl from Tulkarm, on her way back from Jordan.
