“In response to a Human Rights Watch report”.. ICSPR: Initiating preliminary investigations at the Public Prosecution Office of the Criminal Court, is a guarantee of achieving final international justice

Press release

“In response to a Human Rights Watch report”

ICSPR: Initiating preliminary investigations at the Public Prosecution Office of the Criminal Court, is a guarantee of achieving final international justice

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) follows with interest the report issued by Human Rights Watch regarding the rocket attacks carried out by the Palestinian resistance during the Israeli military operation of May 2021 on the Gaza Strip, which lasted for 11 days and left 255 martyrs, including 39 woman, and 67 children.

The report showed that rocket and mortar attacks launched by Palestinian armed factions during the fighting in May 2021, which killed and injured civilians in Israel and Gaza, violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes, and that the Palestinian and Israeli authorities have a long record of failing to investigate alleged war crimes.

ICSPR confirms that the Palestinian people’s exercise of their right to resistance, including armed resistance, is a right recognized by international conventions, and reminds all that the Palestinian people, their leadership and resistance have repeatedly declared their readiness to cooperate with investigation committees and with the Office of The Public Prosecution of the Criminal Court, and reaffirms its confidence in Human Rights Watch, which has a long history of defending human rights. Therefore:

• ICSPR considers that it is the right and duty of Human Rights Watch to shed light on violations of international law regardless of whoever committed them. Nevertheless, ICSPR has reservations about some of the findings included in the Human Rights Watch report, especially in light of the availability of many evidence for the willingness and ability of the Palestinian resistance to abide by the principles and rules of international law and action, including giving a public warning to the population prior to carrying out any rocket attack, as well as employing limited military capabilities to target Israeli military gatherings, and not being drawn into committing acts of revenge as the the Israeli occupation did, in clear adherence to the basic principles of international humanitarian law.
• ICSPR believes that any attempt to equate the Israeli military behavior with the behavior of the Palestinian resistance during the last war operation, somehow, involves equality between the victim and the executioner, and goes beyond the fact that the cause of all the suffering of the Palestinian people is the continuation of the Israeli occupation.
• ICSPR stresses that the Israeli criminal record and the clear Israeli unwillingness to cooperate with international committees and investigations, which is met with a permanent Palestinian welcome for any international effort to investigate the crimes committed, indicate the party that denies international justice.
• ICSPR calls on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to conduct criminal investigations as a necessary step and condition for achieving international justice.
• ICSPR calls on the Palestinian leadership and the leadership of the Palestinian resistance factions to conduct national discussions with the aim of adopting a position based on their commitment to all their international legal obligations under the principles and rules of international humanitarian law, especially in the wake of Palestine’s accession to the four Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, including opening internal and national investigations to ensure overcoming any accidental damages and to enhance the capacity of the Palestinian resistance and its involvement in its national role and its moral and human superiority.