International Criminal Court

The headquarters of the International Criminal Court. Photo: Hypergio via Wikicommons.

JNS.org – Palestinian officials slammed a report from the International Criminal Court that includes a warning that rewarding terrorists and their families could be a war crime.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki said the report was “based on misleading narratives of a political nature … rather than an objective and accurate description of the relevant facts.”

The United States in March 2018 defunded most of its assistance to the Palestinian Authority for rewarding terrorists and their families, known as “pay to slay.”

The Palestinians have sought to use the ICC to prosecute alleged Israeli war crimes.

The report, released on Thursday, included alleged crimes by Israel and the Palestinian Authority under investigation, including Israel’s defense against rioters at its border with Gaza and Palestinian terrorists launching rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state, in addition to using civilians as human shields.

Finally, at the Palestinians’ request, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened in 2015 a preliminary probe into possible international law violations, following the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel.

Bensouda believes that “it is time to take the necessary steps to bring the preliminary examination to a conclusion,” stated the report.