RABAT, Morocco / ISTANBUL 

Arab lawyers announced Tuesday in the Moroccan capital Rabat the formation of a legal group to pursue accountability for Israeli crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and all Palestinian territories.

The announcement came during a press conference in the city, where members from several Arab countries, including Morocco, introduced the new initiative.

The effort “seeks to support victims of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of aggression committed by Israel, and to prosecute the perpetrators before national (Moroccan) and international courts,” Moroccan lawyer Khalid Sefiani, a member of the group, told the press conference.

Sefiani said the group’s work “will operate nationally and internationally to mobilize legal expertise among lawyers to examine and determine the nature of the crimes committed and being committed by Israel, its supporters, and its accomplices.”

The group also aims “to collect evidence, documents, witness lists, and other materials that prove and condemn Israel and its militias so that they do not escape accountability,” he added.

Sefiani did not provide further details about the group’s operational mechanisms or technical procedures.

The announcement follows the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision on Friday to reject for the second time an appeal filed by Israel against arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

In July 2025, the ICC had already dismissed Israel’s formal request to cancel the warrants and suspend the investigation into Netanyahu and Gallant, which was submitted on May 9 of the same year.

The ICC recognized Palestine as a state party to the Rome Statute on Feb. 5, 2021, granting it judicial authority over the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed over 68,200 people and injured more than 170,300 in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The occupied West Bank also witnessed a sharp rise in attacks over the same period, with at least 1,056 Palestinians killed, around 10,300 injured, and more than 20,000, including 1,600 children, detained, according to official Palestinian figures.