International Criminal Court
International Criminal CourtReuters

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) source has revealed to Arutz Sheva that PA foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki will submit an official response as part of an impending "war crimes" suit against Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday before the afternoon.

The response asks to receive information from ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda regarding her investigation of a request submitted by other Arab countries on behalf of the PA.

It was prepared by a team of 45 representatives - of which no less than half are from the politburo of the Hamas terrorist organization.

The PA source said the response, which spans hundreds of pages, aims to capitalize on the anti-Israel momentum this week caused by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report released Monday, which charges Israel with "war crimes."

The suit will "bring testimonies tied to the report with a goal of achieving indictments against senior (IDF) officers and governmental ministers on charges of breaching international law" in last summer's counter-terror operation, the source told Arutz Sheva.

"The court won't be able to ignore the document, and from our perspective it will be an accomplishment and a precedent ahead of submitting our complaints in the near future," added the source.

Omar Hijazi, one of the jurists involved in the document, said Tuesday that it includes three central parts: the first concerning Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, the second about Arab terrorists jailed in Israel, and the third about the IDF's actions in Gaza last summer.

Israeli political sources told Arutz Sheva that the Jewish state does not intend to cooperate with the ICC given that it has never recognized the authority of the court.

Israel has noted that the ICC has been involved in several investigations that have spanned over many years and still not reached completion, causing surprise that the court would so hastily decide to investigate Israel.

The new UNHRC report which is spurring PA action relied heavily on claims by radical Israeli NGOs, and Israel argues it warped the full context of last summer's war by ignoring how Hamas embedded its terror infrastructure in civilian centers so as to put civilians in the line of fire.

International legal experts have in fact chided Israel for going too far in warning Gazans and exercising caution in the fight against Hamas, and thereby harming the ability of Western democracies to combat terrorism.