By Bayram Altug</p> <p>GENEVA (AA) – Israeli crimes against peaceful Palestinian protesters in Gaza should go to the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the Palestinian ambassador to UN in Geneva on Sunday.</p> <p>Ibrahim Khraishi's call came after the UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution on strengthening the UN presence in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.</p> <p>The council said it was "gravely concerned" by the findings of the UN-appointed independent international commission of inquiry, which said Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the peaceful Great March of Return protests.</p> <p>"That report should be transmitted to the ICC by the commissioner," Khraishi told Anadolu Agency, referring to Michelle Bachelet, who heads the council.</p> <p>Khraishi said that Israeli forces target all people, not sparing children, the disabled, the media, or healthcare providers.</p> <p>Expressing his hope that the report will go to the ICC, Khraishi said court prosecutors should start investigating Israeli war crimes.</p> <p>Mentioning British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt saying his country would oppose all anti-Israeli resolutions at the council, Khraishi said: "Our cause was started by Britain’s Balfour Declaration more than 100 years ago. After their mandate, they encouraged Israeli gangs to kill our people and evict them from their houses." </p> <p>He went on to say that under the British mandate in Palestine, Israeli forces had damaged more than 500 villages and cities.</p> <p>Khraishi criticized British "double standards" towards Palestinians, saying the U.K. "is always asking for accountability everywhere but when it comes to Israel, they are the protectors and they encourage a culture of impunity."</p> <p>Since Palestinians began holding rallies along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone in March 2018, more than 250 demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire.</p> <p>Demonstrators demand the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. </p> <p>They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.</p> <p> </p> <p>*Writing by Sibel Morrow</p> <p>
