The Palestinian Authority has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes.
President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute – the founding treaty of the ICC - on Wednesday and filed a request for Palestine to join the international court as a member state.
The move followed the PA’s failed bid to win UN Security Council backing for a two-year deadline on Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Thursday, Mr Abbas requested an investigation into the conduct of the IDF during last summer’s war with Hamas. The ICC will take several weeks to process his submission.
Legal experts say that there will be many hurdles for the Palestinians to cross before they can begin filing war crimes indictments against individual Israelis.
Israel argues that its war against Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of around 2,200 Gazans, was legal under the ‘laws of war’ because the terror group had hidden its rocket launchers among and beneath residential neighbourhoods, as well as next to schools and hospitals. According to the IDF, this meant that civilian casualties were an unavoidable consequence of the pursuit of legitimate military objectives.
