Rights group: First Palestinian ICC case to be Gaza war

The first case Palestine will refer to the International Criminal Court will be the crimes Israel committed during the summer of 2014, including the Gaza war, a legal expert said Sunday.

On Jan. 2, Palestine presented a formal request to join the Hague-based court in a move which opens the way for it to file suit against Israeli officials for alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.

The ICC can prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 1, 2002, when the court's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, came into force.

If the application process goes as planned, Palestine should be able to refer a case in early April, with legal preparations to that end already well under way.

Shawan Jabarin, director of the Ramallah-based rights group al-Haq, said Palestine had decided to file a suit over Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip starting from June 13, 2014.

That was the date Israel began a massive crackdown in the West Bank after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers, triggering a series of events which led to the seven-week Gaza war that killed over 2,300 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

Cases referred to the ICC need "a very specific geographic location and timeframe," Jabarin told AFP, saying the same date had been selected by a UN commission probing alleged rights violations during the Gaza war and the period leading up to it. more

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