Gazans Hope ICC Will Make ’Israel’ Pay
Local Editor
Holding "Israel" accountable. This is what Yasser al-Qassas and thousands of Gazans hope to see with the Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court on Wednesday.
Palestinians joined the ICC with the goal of trying "Israeli" leaders for war crimes in the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip in summer 2014.
Qassas is one of the many Palestinians who lost family members during the July-August aggression, waged by "Israel".
Approximately 2,200 Palestinians were martyred, of them 1,500 civilians, according to a recent United Nations report.
A July 21 air strike on a five-storey building west of Gaza City demolished Qassas's home, the unemployed 40-year-old recalled.
""Israel" killed my pregnant wife and four of my daughters, in addition to five other family members, and it should pay for this at the ICC," he said.
The Palestinians have formed a committee to oversee cases to lodge with the ICC as part of a "national effort" to end "Israeli" impunity, including a Gaza committee and another for settlements.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erakat will oversee the mechanism, which includes various figures from the Palestinian political scene, universities and human rights organizations, an official said.
This effort relies heavily on organizations that defend Palestinian rights and collect incriminating evidence.
Qassas approached several of them.
"I demand the president [Mahmud Abbas] files our case against the terrorist "Israel" with the ICC to get justice for our children," the 55-year-old fisherman told AFP.
""Israel" killed our children on purpose, it wasn't just one rocket, but four," he said. "The whole world saw this live."
"I will never rest until I see "Israeli" leaders behind bars," he added.
Among the cases are the shelling of a UN school on July 24 that martyred at least 15 people, and the July 16 bombing of a beach where the four children died.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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