Geneva, December 29 (RHC)-- The UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing has called for establishing a new international tribunal if the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not take swift action regarding the barbaric Israeli hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a post on X, Balakrishnan Rajagopal said the systematic bombing of civilian infrastructure and widespread destruction of the besieged Palestinian territory amounts to a war crime and crime against humanity.  “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.”

Rajagopal had made a similar move in support of Gaza last month. He warned that the destruction in Gaza comes at a “huge cost in human lives.”   The UN expert back then said when hostilities are “directed against the civilian population, they also amount to crimes against humanity.” He said civilian housing does not represent military targets.

French lawyer Gilles Dever has mobilized a contingent of peers from all over the world to represent the persecuted Palestinians before the ICC.  He believes the lawsuit at the ICC has made a remarkable progress.

Libyan Ambassador to the Netherlands Ziad Daghim has said his country and a group of other states submitted a lawsuit against Israel to the ICC.   The ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has ordered the appointment of investigators to verify the crimes in question, which were perpetrated by the Israeli military against the Palestinian people.

Khan has confirmed reception of an appeal from South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti.