JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority submitted its first documents against Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The documents presented on Thursday deal with continued construction in West Bank settlements, Gaza and Palestinians in Israeli jails, the Palestine Liberation Organization announced.
The information in the documents is general, with no specific charges and no named individuals, according to reports. The actual documents were not made public.
In January, ICC prosecutors opened a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank dating to the end of June 2014, just before the start of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. The prosecutors will determine whether preliminary findings merit a full investigation into alleged atrocities and possible charges against Israeli and/or Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian Authority officially became a member of the court in April. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas signed the requests to join the ICC and other international conventions at the end of December after the United Nations Security Council failed to pass a Palestinian statehood proposal.
The filing of the documents comes days after the release of a United Nations report that found that both Israel and Hamas may have committed war crimes during last summer’s conflict.
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