JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel "will not sit idly by" as the Palestinian Authority (PA) has chosen confrontation with Israel by joining the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"We will not allow [army] soldiers and commanders to be hauled before the International Criminal Court in the Hague," Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
"It is the Palestinian Authority leaders – who have allied with the war criminals of Hamas – who must be called to account," Netanyahu said, in reference to the formation of a unity government between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.
"The soldiers…will continue to defend the state of Israel with strength and determination and just as they defend us, we will defend them with the same strength and determination," he added.
On Wednesday, Abbas signed the Rome Statute – the founding treaty of the ICC – along with 20 international agreements and organizations.
Full ICC membership would allow the PA to bring a lawsuit against Israel for war crimes.
The move came only hours after the UN Security Council rejected a Palestinian draft resolution calling for a three-year deadline for ending Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land.
On Friday, Netanyahu called on the ICC to reject the Palestinian application.
www.aa.com.tr/en
