PARIS – A team of lawyers on Thursday will present evidence of genocide by Israel to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC in The Hague.
Features of the legal battle to prosecute Israel for its ongoing war against the Palestinians in the Strip of Gaza began to unfold Nov. 9.
Led by French lawyer Gilles Devers, the legal army composed of human rights groups and more than 600 lawyers from across the world aims to defend Palestinian civilians’ rights before the court.
The judicial step is considered a supplement to the case filed by South Africa on the charge of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention that was heard earlier this month at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In continuation of the complaint procedures and to strengthen investigation approaches by the Court, the group of lawyers will present evidence of genocide which supports the legal adaptation that lawyers submitted to the prosecutor’s office.
The legal team will hold two meetings with the Office of the Prosecutor and the Victims Section of the International Criminal Court later Thursday.
After the meeting, the team will hold a news conference to inform the international media and public opinion of developments in the case and the outcomes of the two meetings.
A 56-page lawsuit arrived at the prosecutor’s office last November demanding the opening of an investigation into incidents attributed to the Israeli army in Gaza since Oct. 7, when military attacks in Gaza began that have killed more than 25,000 victims to date.
The text of the lawsuit traces the threads of the case from its beginning, starting from the 1920 British Mandate for Palestine, the 1917 Balfour Declaration, until the 1993 Oslo Accords, and Palestinian resistance group, Hamas’ operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which it launched Oct. 7 in a surprise cross-border raid on Israel which Israeli authorities claimed killed 1,200 people.
The lawyers also rely on documented facts and declarations of clear intent by Israeli officials to commit war crimes and genocide against Palestinian citizens.
According to Article 51 of the Rome Statute, the prosecutor receives evidence and gives a reasonable period to study and determine its admissibility in terms of substance and not in terms of form. -AA
