The documented case of the Israeli soldier shooting and killing an injured Palestinian youth in March 2016 in Hebron could have provided the perfect case for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a war crimes investigation. The Hague-based ICC is authorized to look into violations of international humanitarian law in areas under its mandate. The Palestinian occupied territories became part of its jurisdiction on April 1, 2015, after Palestine was accepted as a full member of the court.
The ICC doesn’t indict governments or organizations, but goes after individual war criminals if there is a strong case for indictment. The evidence was damning in the case of Elor Azaria shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif. A video taken by a human rights activist clearly shows that the Israeli soldier killed an injured person lying on the ground incapacitated. It was not the first time that an Israeli soldier had shot a Palestinian in violation of international law, or even in violation of his own military's rules of engagement, which specify that soldiers are not allowed to open fire unless their lives are in danger.
Amnesty International (AI) has shone a light on this issue, documenting that Israeli soldiers often carry out “unlawful” killings that amount to war crimes. In September 2016, AI sent a memo to the Israeli government noting that in at least 15 cases documented between September 2015 and September 2016, “Palestinians were deliberately shot dead, despite posing no imminent threat to life, in what appear to be extrajudicial executions.” Earlier, in a 2014 report, “Trigger-happy: Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank,” AI documented 19 cases that “amounted to possible unlawful killings, including three cases where there was evidence of willful killings, which amount to war crimes.”
When the Israeli army prosecutor decided to charge Azaria with manslaughter, the military was aware that ICC prosecutors were considering investigating the case. Even before the Azaria case, the Jerusalem Post had reported that the ICC was looking into hundreds of incidents of possible war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza war. The Palestinian government and human rights organizations have supplied the ICC with information documenting alleged war crimes committed during that conflict. The ICC has yet to indicate what it plans to do with the information.
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