The State of Palestine officially submitted documents to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday accusing the Zionist entity of war crimes and illegal settlement construction on Palestinian territories.

The State of Palestine officially submitted documents to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday accusing the Zionist entity of war crimes and illegal settlement construction on Palestinian territories.

The move, made possible after Palestinians joined the court in April, comes days after a United Nations report said both the occupation entity and Palestinian resistance faction Hamas may have committed war crimes during the Zionist bloody military offensive on the Gaza Strip last July.

The file delivered to the ICC contained accusations related to the Zionist war on Gaza last year and the construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki handed the file to ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Benso at the court’s headquarters in The Hague.

Maliki said his government wants to see the occupation authorities tried before the international arena.

Responding to the development on Thursday, the Zionist Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon called the move “manipulation” and a “trap”.
“We hope that the prosecutor will not fall in that trap,” Nahshon said.

On April 1, Palestine officially joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) after The Hague-based tribunal approved its accession bid.

Palestine officially joined the Rome Statute, an automatic procedure after the passage of two months since the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) filed its membership request with the United Nations.

The ICC was established in 1998 as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses - such as war crimes and crimes against humanity - in cases where national court systems failed.

In July and August of 2014, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed and 11,000 injured - mostly women and children - during the Zionist 51-day Operation Protective Edge on the Gaza Strip.

For decades, the occupation entity has continued to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank on which it continues to build settlements in breach of international law.

The number of Zionists living in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem is estimated to be over 500,000.