Arab League Council urges ICC to complete probe into Israeli war crimes after Gaza assaults

CAIRO – 10 May 2023: The Arab League Council has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to complete its probe into the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israeli has committed against the defenseless Palestinian people.

The council made the remarks in a session chaired and requested by Egypt to discuss the developments in Palestine in the wake of the latest Israeli assaults in the Gaza Strip.

Since early Tuesday, Israel has carried out a series of airstrikes in populated areas of the Gaza Strip, killing over 20 Palestinians and injuring dozens, the Palestinian Health Ministry said today.

In retaliation, Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have fired dozens of rockets at Israel, in the heaviest fighting between the two sides since the three-day violence that erupted last August, killing almost 50 Palestinians in Gaza.

During today’s session, the Arab League Council called for the ICC to complete its probe into Israeli crimes, including settlement and annexation, aggression against cities, villages and camps, killing of civilians, journalists and medics, and forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes.

The council also called for the Court to study all options through which it can exercise its jurisdiction in occupied Palestinian state.

The council also called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security, and exerting the necessary pressure on Israel, the occupying power, in order to stop its aggression.

Moreover, the council urged the international community to pressurize Israeli into allowing the ongoing fact-finding committee established by the Human Rights Council in May 2021 to enter Palestine in order to exercise its mandate in investigating facts about the Israeli crimes and violations.

The council expressed its strong condemnation of the widespread Israeli aggression and crimes against the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah and the rest of the Palestinian cities, villages and camps.

This includes the “barbaric” Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, which targeted civilians, children and women in residential neighborhoods while they were sleeping safely in their homes, victimizing entire families, and killing, wounding or detaining dozens of Palestinians.

The council expressed full solidarity with the Palestinian people, supporting their steadfastness in the face of the continuous and escalating Israeli aggression against them.

The council voiced support to the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to self-defense and extended condolences to the families of the martyrs and victims of the recent aggression.