Palestine to show ICC file of sick detainees

PA compiles list of sick Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons for ICC

Palestine will hand a file of sick detainees in Israeli prisons to the International Criminal Court as further proof of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

MENA

2 min read

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31 December, 2019

Palestinians have been subjected to 'war crimes' [Getty]

The Palestinian Authority (PA) said this week it will prepare a list of sick detainees being held in Israeli prisons to refer to the United Nations' International Criminal Court (ICC).

Qadri Abu Bakr, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority's Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday ordered the file to be prepared.

He told PA's official news agency WAFA that the file will suppliment evidence before the ICC after the court passed a resolution to open a probe into Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

Read also: ICC probe into alleged Israeli war crimes 'blatant anti-Semitism', says Netanyahu

He added that deliberate medical negligence against prisoners and Israel's withholding of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenue amount to war crimes.

In November, Sami Abu Diyak, 36, died in an Israeli prison as a result of medical negligence to deal with intestinal cancer.

He became the 222nd Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails to die as a result of medical negligence since 1967.

Earlier this month, ICC's chief prosecutor said she wanted to open a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Palestine, sparking a furious reaction from Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision made the Hague-based court, which Israel has refused to sign up to since its creation in 2002, a "political tool" against the Jewish state.

The Palestinians welcomed the move by the ICC as a "long overdue step" following a nearly five-year preliminary probe by the prosecutor into the situation since the 2014 war in Gaza.

"I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine," ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement.

"In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip," she added, without specifying the perpetrators of the alleged crimes.