PA files suit with ICC over 'terrorism' by Israeli settlers

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has officially submitted a lawsuit against Israel with the International Criminal Court (ICC) documenting "settler terrorism" following a recent terrorist attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that killed a Palestinian infant.

The PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki on Monday handed over the file prepared on Israeli settlers’ violence against the Palestinian people to the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in the Dutch city of The Hague, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency said.

The move was based on instructions by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has held the Tel Aviv regime responsible for the deadly attack.

Wafa reported that Malki briefed Bensouda on the latest grave developments in the occupied West Bank territories, including the recent deadly arson attack and the “cold-blooded” killing of teenage demonstrator who was shot during a protest against the Israeli settlers’ violence near Ramallah on Friday. The protester, identified as Laith al-Khaldi, succumbed to his critical wounds and died on Saturday.

Malki also said the continuation of Israel’s occupation and settlements paved the way for such crimes. He also accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and called for an investigation into the situation in Palestinian territories. 

An 18-month-old Palestinian baby boy was burnt to death in the early hours of Friday, when Israeli settlers, wearing black balaclavas, smashed a window and threw a Molotov cocktail into the parents’ bedroom while they were asleep in their house in the West Bank village of Duma, south of Nablus.

PA officials have been collecting evidence and testimonies in recent days about the tragic incident in Duma and other cases pertaining to the Israeli regime’s attacks on settlers.

The lawsuit will also include evidence related to an arson attack by Israeli settlers on an ancient Christian church in Tabgha area near the city of Tiberias in June.

Senior Palestinian sources say the complaint will prove that the attacks by extremist settlers, including the Duma and the church events, are not only sporadic hate crimes, as declared by the Israeli officials, but are premeditated and follow a pattern of attacks.

After the arson attack in the West Bank, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reacted to the killing of the Palestinian toddler, describing it as a “terrorist act.”

In addition, the European Union urged the Israeli regime to demonstrate “zero tolerance” for the persisting settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, adding that the “cold-blooded killing of the Palestinian toddler… highlights the urgent need for a political solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

Various Palestinian factions have also voiced outrage at the killing, calling for appropriate measures to stop the recurring settler acts of violence.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the West Bank since the beginning of 2015.

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