Abbas Confidant: We'll Take 'Hundreds' of Israeli Soldiers to International Criminal Court This Year

"A prominent Palestinian journalist and confidant of PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday the Palestinians were collecting the names and photographs of 'hundreds' of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, with the intention of bringing them to the International Criminal Court in 2017.

'In 2017, we are going to The Hague,' said Nasser Laham, according to Channel 2. 'We have hundreds of pages of names of IDF officers. Every pilot and every officer and every soldier - we have his photo, we have his name, and we are waiting for him at The Hague.'

'If we are successful with one, just one, it will be a different world,' the editor of the Palestinian Ma'an news agency was quoted saying.

In his remarks, Laham urged the Palestinians to renounce violence and allow the Palestinian leadership to focus on international efforts to prosecute Israeli military officials.

'I told my people in a live broadcast - in suits and ties we will take the Israelis to The Hague, we will handcuff them,' he said. '...This is a war without bullets. Just wait, give us another chance.'

Since the 2014 Gaza war, Palestinian officials have sought to prosecute Israel in the international court. Palestinians formally asked the ICC in 2015 to investigate the Jewish state, which is not a party to the treaty that governs the court, for alleged war crimes.

While Israel vehemently opposes any ICC investigation, officials have said they will cooperate with the body to convince it of the competence of the state's own court..."