The Palestinian Authority said on Saturday that it was still hoping that the international Criminal Court (ICC) would launch an investigation into Israeli “violations and war crimes” against the Palestinians.
In response to clashes over the weekend between Palestinians and IDF troops in the West Bank – during which soldiers reportedly shot dead 17-year-old Mohammed Munir al-Tamimi in the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah – the PA said that such an investigation would “put an end to dealing with Israel as a state above the law that escapes any punishment.”
Palestinian sources said that Tamimi was shot in the stomach on Friday night during clashes with IDF soldiers who entered the village. He was rushed to the Yasser Arafat Hospital in the town of Salfit, where he was pronounced dead.
The IDF said that dozens of Palestinians threw rocks as part of the demonstration, and in response the IDF used crowd dispersal tactics.
After a suspect threw rocks in a manner that endangered the life of one of the soldiers, the soldier responded with live fire as part of a procedure, the IDF said, adding that the incident will be investigated.
A strongly-worded statement issued by the PA Foreign Ministry accused Israel of committing “the most heinous forms of violations that are classified according to international law as war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
It also accused Israel of carrying out “colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”
According to the ministry, Israel has been practicing these violations against the Palestinian people and their homeland for nearly 100 years.
“Not only did the occupying state steal the homeland of the Palestinians, and complete the theft of what was left of their land, but it also practices the worst forms of abuse and oppression against citizens who reject colonialism and defend their land,” the ministry added. It also accused the IDF of acting as “militias to protect and secure the theft of Palestinian land.”
The ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli colonization and settlement of the Palestinian land, and the accompanying violations and continuous crimes that dominate the scene of Palestinian life on a daily basis.”
It took to task the international community, especially the United Nations Security Council, for failing to take action “toward the crimes of the occupation against our people, giving Israel a license to persist in implementing its expansionist colonial project and establish the apartheid regime in occupied Palestine.”