Arabs take first step to sue Israel.

The Arab League and Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs are now reportedly bent on documenting Israeli human rights violations in Gaza as a prelude to lodging a complaint with international courts.

As a first step, Arab League Secretary-General Amr MoussaAmr Moussa has called the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to inform him about the impending action at The Hague, Arab League spokesman Abdul Alim Al-Abiyet told "Saudi Gazette" by phone from Cairo, Friday.

Working in tandem, the Palestinian Authority held a consultative meeting Thursday night in Ramallah before submitting to the Arab League its acceptance of the ICC’s authority as part of the Arab endeavor for legal action against Israel, PA Minister of Justice Dr. Ali Khashan told "Saudi Gazette".

Sabri Saydam, a member of the Crisis Cell for Gaza at Abbas’s office had said earlier this week at a Gaza reconstruction conference in Dubai that 300 legal suits against Israel have been made and that the number could go up to 500 claims.“This is the biggest holocaust after Rwanda and World War II,” he said. Saydam added that Israel has to be pressed into paying compensation for crimes going back to 1948. Around 700 photographs have also been gathered and another 300 are to be added to a collection created as evidence to sue Israel.

Israel’s recent air and ground bombardment of Gaza killed 1,300 Palestinians, wounded thousands more and devastated Gaza’s infrastructure, causing a huge humanitarian crisis.
The committee will document Israeli violations and crimes in collaboration with the people of Gaza, civil society organizations, and UN agencies, mainly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the unnamed source cited by KUNA said in news remarks.
The UNHRC is expected to convene its ordinary meeting in Geneva on March 2 to discuss the findings of the investigations.

On the same day, Cairo will host an international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza, estimated at $2 billion, the Egyptian foreign ministry said Friday. The meeting, to be held in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, would also deal with urgent humanitarian support.
Preliminary estimates put the damage in Gaza after Israel’s offensive at nearly $2 billion. Saudi Arabia has said it would donate $1 billion. Reconstruction could take three to four years.