Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told member-states of the International Criminal Court in a first address on Monday that the Palestinians plan to join the ICC “at an appropriate time.”

Mansour made the address after the Palestinians were given the status of observer state to the assembly of states parties to the ICC but they have yet to formally apply to join the 122-member court.

“The time to join will be decided by our leadership at an appropriate time,” Mansour said.

The Palestinians have threatened to file a suit against Israel over the 50-day war in the Gaza Strip, in which more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians.

“It is the court where the Palestinian people desire to seek justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against them by Israel, the occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem,” Mansour said.

Israel has denied wrongdoing and argued that Hamas militants used civilians as shields during the war that ended in August.

Neither Israel nor the United States have signed on to the Rome statute and become members of international court. SAPA