The Hague, Netherlands:
The owner of a Gaza developing housing international media that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike is lodging a complaint with the International Criminal Court, his lawyer stated.
The complaint by Jawad Mehdi says that the attack on May 15 which flattened Jala Tower, housing the offices of US news agency Associated Press and Al Jazeera tv, was a “war crime”.
The filing, a copy of which was seen by AFP, comes just after the chief prosecutor of the ICC stated last week that “crimes” may perhaps have been committed throughout the current violence involving Israel and the Palestinians.
“The owner of this building, who is a Palestinian, has mandated his lawyers to file a war crime complaint with the International Criminal Court,” lawyer Gilles Devers stated in a statement.
Devers told AFP outdoors the court, exactly where about 10 pro-Palestinian protesters had been gathered, that Israel could show “no military objective” for the attack.
“We hear a lot that this tower could have been destroyed because there was equipment or an armed resistance team. This is something that we totally deny after studying the case,” Devers stated.
“International law is that you can only harm civilian property if it is used for military purposes, and that was not the case. So we say it today in front this court and in this complaint.”
Devers stated the complaint would be formally sent to the court by e-mail later Friday.
Israel claimed that Hamas military intelligence units had been in the developing.
Mehdi stated at the time that an Israeli intelligence officer warned him he had one hour to guarantee the developing was evacuated ahead of a missile slammed into the 13-storey developing.
The ICC has no obligation to think about complaints filed to its prosecutor, who can choose independently what situations to submit to judges at the court.
The ICC had currently opened an investigation in March into attainable war crimes in the Palestinian Territories by each Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups considering the fact that 2014.
The move infuriated Israel which is not a member of the court, even though Palestine has been a state party to the ICC considering the fact that 2015.
Prosecutor Bensouda stated last week that she noted with “great concern the escalation of violence” in the West Bank and Gaza “and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute,” which founded the ICC.