UN expert calls Israeli conduct in Gaza ‘institutionalized impunity’

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, has called for establishing a new special tribunal if the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not take swift measures to prosecute the war in Gaza.

In a post on the X platform, Rajagopal wrote: “What has happened in Gaza is the result of what I call institutionalized impunity. Impunity for occupation. For a war of extermination. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. If the ICC does not act very soon, we need a special tribunal for Gaza and action by States”.

“If the ICC does not act any time soon, there will be a need for an international tribunal for Gaza and action on the part of states,” he added.

Libyan Ambassador to the Netherlands, Ziad Daghim, has said that his country and a group of states, led by Palestine, submitted a lawsuit against Israel to the ICC. The lawsuit aims to prosecute the Israeli army over mass killings it perpetrates in Gaza, where over 20,000 Palestinians have been martyred since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, 70 per cent of them were children and women, in addition to starving Gaza population and depriving them of water, medicine and electricity.

Meanwhile, French lawyer Gilles Dever has mobilized a group of lawyers from all over the world to represent the persecuted Palestinians before the ICC, affirming that the lawsuit lodged to the ICC has made remarkable progress.

The ICC Prosecutor ordered the appointment of investigators to verify the crimes in question, that were perpetrated by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people, prior to opening the case lodged on Nov. 8.

The Hague-based ICC received appeals from five countries on Nov. 17 to investigate the war crimes perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.