Israel on Tuesday questioned the legal validity of a Palestinian request earlier in the day to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged human rights violations linked to "Israeli settlement policies in occupied territories."
"The purported Palestinian referral is legally invalid," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The ICC lacks jurisdiction over the Israeli-Palestinian issue, since Israel is not a member of the court and because the Palestinian Authority is not a state."
The ministry also called the Palestinian request a "cynical step."
Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki arrived at the International Criminal Court to call on prosecutors there to launch an immediate investigation into Israel's settlements.
According to a PA statement, the so-called "referral" that Malki is handing to the court's prosecutors underscores "that there is sufficient compelling evidence of the ongoing commission of grave crimes to warrant an immediate investigation."
Malki was accompanied by a police escort and ushered into the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was met with staffers at the door. He did not say anything to reporters upon entering.
The ICC has been conducting a preliminary probe since 2015 into alleged crimes in the West Bank, including Israel's settlement policy, and crimes allegedly committed by both sides during a 2014 conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Tuesday's referral could speed up a decision on whether to launch a full-fledged investigation that could ultimately lead to the indictment of high-ranking Israelis.
"The referral covers past, present and future Israeli actions to promote, expand and entrench the settlement regime, perpetrated by, or with the assistance of, the government of Israel or its agents and accomplices in the occupied territory of the State of Palestine, including east Jerusalem," the Palestinian statement said.
The move comes as Israeli-Palestinian relations are at their lowest point in years, following the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem last week and deadly clashes on the Gaza border, where Israel killed dozens of violent demonstrators attempting to breach its sovereign borders.
Israel has said it was defending its border and has accused Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group of endangering civilians by using the protests as cover to try to carry out attacks. Hamas later confirmed that most of those killed were Hamas operatives.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, but its citizens can be charged by the court if they are suspected of committing crimes on the territory of, or against a national of a country that is a member. The ICC has recognized Palestine as a member state.
While the ICC can indict suspects, it has no police force and has to rely on cooperation from member states to enforce arrest warrants.
The Palestinian Authority likely chose to take the settlement issue to the court first as it appears the strongest case. In 2004, the United Nations' highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, ruled in an advisory opinion that the settlements breached international law.
While the International Court of Justice and ICC are separate courts, the ICJ's rulings are considered strong legal precedents that can be taken into account by the ICC.
Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the PA, described the settlements case as a "home run."
Buttu said the ICJ ruling buttresses Palestinians claims.
"The ICJ was only an advisory opinion. But that being said, it was the opinion of the highest international law court," she said. "It's a different court than the ICC, but it's an international law court. And they came out very firmly. They said these settlements are illegal. All of them are illegal."
Under international law, it is illegal to transfer populations out of or into occupied territory.
This stance ignores Israel's claims that the land where it has built settlements is not occupied because it was captured from Jordan, not the Palestinians, in the 1967 Six-Day War, and Jordan does not claim the territory. Since the Palestinians never ruled the West Bank, Israel argues, this territory is disputed and its final status should be resolved in negotiations. It also claims that settlements can be torn down and therefore do not prejudice the final status of the territory. In the case of Gaza, for instance, Israel uprooted all settlements there when it withdrew in 2005.
The Gaza withdrawal removed some 8,000 settlers from their homes.
