He has hesitated in the past because such a move would instantly put the Palestinians on a risky collision course with Israel. But with about 1,400 Palestinians killed in Gaza, according to health officials, Abbas has signaled he might move ahead — cautiously.
Palestinian officials said Thursday that Abbas asked all Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and the smaller group Islamic Jihad, to give their written consent to such a move. Different PLO factions signed up in a meeting in the West Bank earlier this week, while Abbas is still waiting for a response from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, they said.
In Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday also accused Israel of violating the rules of war.
Pillay said the Israeli regime has defied international law in Gaza by attacking civilian areas such as schools, hospitals, homes and UN facilities.
"None of this appears to me to be accidental," Pillay said of Israel. "They appear to be defying — deliberate defiance of — obligations that international law imposes on Israel."
Pillay also took aim at the US, Israel's main ally, for providing financial support for Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-rocket defense system. "No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling," she said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined comment on Pillay's allegations and on the Palestinian deliberations concerning the ICC.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters "There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."
After the first war in 2009, Abbas — in an apparent effort not to antagonize the US — helped freeze a UN report that called on Israel to prosecute any war crimes or face scrutiny by the ICC. Now, Abbas has more tools at his disposal.
In November 2012, the UN General Assembly recognized Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and East al-Quds — lands Israel captured in 1967 — as a non-member observer state.
This state remains largely theoretical since Israel retains control of the West Bank and East al-Quds and of Gaza's border points. However, the UN vote improved Palestinian chances to seek admission to the International Criminal Court since the tribunal only has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state.
The statehood recognition paved the way for the Palestinians to seek membership in dozens of UN agencies and international conventions.
Abbas signed a first batch after nine months of US-brokered negotiations with Israel ran aground in April, and Palestinian officials said more membership requests would follow, despite opposition by Israel and the US.
Gaining membership to the ICC has been considered the Palestinian "doomsday weapon" because it would likely invite major Israeli retaliation.
But widespread anger in the West Bank over the rising casualties in Gaza has increased pressure on Abbas to act.
"People feel that this tool should be used to stop the Israeli crimes," said former Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib.
"When people in the West Bank see these scenes that are occurring now in Gaza, they feel that they should support their brothers in Gaza, and the first thing that comes to their mind is the issue of the ICC because they think that it is possible and thus they are pushing more and more for it now," he said.
Independent legislator Mustafa Barghouti said Thursday that leaders of political factions in the West Bank have repeatedly urged Abbas to act.
"We have been pressing him for a long time," he said.
At a meeting Tuesday with political leaders and faction chiefs, Abbas asked participants to sign a declaration of support for such a move, said Barghouti, adding that everyone signed.
The final decision would still be up to Abbas, according to other participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because there were not authorized to talk to reporters about internal deliberation.
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