International Criminal Court (ICC) is evaluating the investigation Gaza’s situation is a “priority” and has a special team to pursue the case of alleged war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas, this newspaper has learned, both from sources in the Hague and from the group of half a thousand international lawyers who recently filed a genocide lawsuit against Israel.
Although the spokesman for the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague did not want to give numbers, the lawyers’ group assures that there are at least three people interested in this case: What they see as a “major advance”Following the launch of a framework investigation in 2021 into possible crimes committed in previous wars in Palestine, this campaign has passed with almost no significant progress.
on November 7 French lawyer Gilles Devers He requested an investigation against Israel to the International Criminal Court. He did this on behalf of more than 560 lawyers and 160 NGOs from different countries, including France, Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Algeria.
Lawyers focus on gathering evidence. They decided to focus on four potentially illegal aspects of Israel’s attack on Hamas in Gaza. possible crime of genocideor according to articles 15.1 and 53.1 of the Rome Statute:
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attacks on the healthcare system. According to the latest situation report prepared by the United Nations based on data from the Gaza Ministry of Infrastructure, Israel bombed 26 hospitals and 55 health centers to the point of destroying or damaging them.
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The extent of the bombings and widespread destruction, This is “the clearest indication of the intention to disintegrate Palestinian society.” According to the UN, 60 percent of houses in Gaza were damaged.
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Prime Minister’s statements Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the plaintiffs, many of his speeches and those of the country’s president and members of his cabinet showed clear genocidal intent (the destruction of all or part of a group). They pointed out the cuts to basic foodstuffs, suggested that the entire Palestinian nation was guilty of Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, or spoke of the deportation of Gazans or the destruction of the Strip.
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death of entire families There are at least a hundred people who lost all their members in the attacks as a result of attacks on their homes.
The Rome Statute is a Statute that defines the concepts of both war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Israel is not a signatory state, but that does not exempt its leaders They will face arrest if they end up being tried and travel to another signatory country, as Chief Justice Karim Khan has assured on behalf of both Hamas and Israeli leaders.
Israel denies directly and deliberately attacking civilians or their infrastructure. He guarantees that he will fight for Destroy the terrorist organization HamasHe compares it to the Islamic State or the Nazis. It also confirms that the civilian deaths occurred because the Islamist group used them as “human shields”.
“The death of every civilian is a tragedy. What you have to do to avoid them is to leave the danger zone. And that’s exactly what we did,” Netanyahu told Pedro Sánchez during the Spanish president’s visit to Israel last Thursday. “We asked them to leave. We sent them brochuresWe called civilians in the areas where we would hit Hamas terrorists and said, “Please leave.”
International group for Israel in The Hague
The International Criminal Court’s investigation team “clearly demonstrates the impossibility of entering the scene of the events” [Israel y Gaza] Does not hinder research progress“, following a two-hour meeting with those in charge of the case in The Hague, according to the lawyer group. “Given the control requirements that the prosecution must carry out for each document, they asked us to select the most important and relevant documents and not send all those we have, as this could be counterproductive.”
Devers’ team includes weapons experts who, among other things, determined the type of munitions used in the attacks. many of these They will meet in Algiers (Algeria) this Wednesday and Thursday. Organizing the next steps of the complaint, which they describe as a process that takes many years.
They plan to create national legal committees affiliated with a central structure. Iran is collecting evidence With Palestinian lawyers and affected Gaza citizensIt is supported by relevant Non-Governmental Organizations.
There is currently no specific support from major Western countries for the investigation of possible cases. War crimes or genocide in Israel and Palestine. In contrast, last year the ICC Prosecutor’s Office created a special fund to investigate war crimes in Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares specifically pledged 540,000 euros to this fund in December last year, in addition to the 6.184 million annual contribution to the Court. According to information obtained from diplomatic sources, there is currently no special contribution from our country to the Hague investigation in Israel and Palestine.
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are experiencing the worst war of the last half century. More than 218 Palestinians and 29 Israelis lost their lives in the occupied territories. West Bank and East Jerusalem Before October 7th. That day, Hamas launched a major surprise attack against Israel, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. The Israeli counteroffensive cost the lives of at least 14,800 people in Gaza.