The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday urged the International Criminal Court to immediately carry out a full investigation into what it described as the successive and continuing Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
Israel immediately assailed the request, which came a week after at least 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in protests at the Gaza border, calling it “legally invalid.’’
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, arrived at the court’s headquarters in The Hague on Tuesday to hand over a so-called referral to prosecutors that also calls for the court to investigate Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to a Palestinian statement, the referral document reinforces the Palestinian view “that there is sufficient compelling evidence of the ongoing commission of grave crimes to warrant an immediate investigation.’’
The court has been conducting preliminary inquiries since 2015 into issues including Israel’s policy of settlement construction in the West Bank and the behavior of both sides in the fighting in Gaza in 2014.
The Palestinian statement on Tuesday sought to accelerate the creation of a fuller investigation, potentially leading to indictments of Israeli officials.
“The referral should cover all the Israeli crimes and violations committed/to be committed against the people of Palestine in the past, present and future,’’ the Palestinian statement said. “The referral will cover crimes associated with the Israeli colonial settlement regime in the Occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.’’
The court “will be expected to accelerate the opening of a criminal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel,’’ the Palestinian statement said. “It is time to hold the Israeli war criminals accountable and to bring justice to the Palestinian People.’’
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the court had no jurisdiction over the Israel-Palestine issue because Israel “is not a member of the Court and because the Palestinian Authority is not a state.’’
The Israeli response reflected Israel’s strong opposition to the court’s potential entanglement in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the possibility that Israeli leaders could be indicted — even if by a court they do not recognize.
The Palestinians used their status as a UN member state to join the court three years ago, subjecting the Palestinian territories to court jurisdiction. They authorized the court to investigate the 2014 conflict in Gaza.
Under the court’s rules, any member can request an investigation.
The legal maneuver on Tuesday came at a moment of especially high tensions between Israelis and Palestinians after the United States formally relocated its embassy to Jerusalem and the fatal shooting of scores of Palestinians in Gaza whom Israel accused of trying to storm a border fence.
Last week another international body, the UN Human Rights Council, considered a resolution to “urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry’’ to investigate “all alleged violations and abuses’’ of civilians since the latest Gaza protests began on March 30.
The Palestinian case against Israel is by far the most high profile and politically sensitive issue to reach the court since it was established in 2002.
According to its website, the court is currently investigating 11 “situations,’’ the bulk of them in sub-Saharan Africa, involving allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Should the court’s chief prosecutor, currently Fatou Bensouda of Gambia, agree to take up an investigation of Israel, the case faces a series of time-consuming hurdles.
