Tripoli - A charity run by Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam called on the International Criminal Court on Wednesday to prosecute Israeli leaders for a July 30 attack on the Lebanese village of Qana, it said on Wednesday.
Officials of the Gaddafi Foundation gave reporters the text of a memorandum they said had been sent to the prosecutor of the Dutch-based court on July 31 demanding action over the attack, in which Lebanon says 54 civilians including 37 children were killed.
Calling the attack a massacre, the memorandum read in part: "The foundation would like to ask you to exercise your jurisdiction according to articles 13 and 15 of the Statue of the International Criminal Court to investigate the massacre that was perpetrated, supervised and planned by the Prime Minister of Israel, the Israeli Defence Minister and the Israeli forces' Chief of Staff."
The International Criminal Court said it had received several appeals concerning Lebanon but it did not have jurisdiction to act.
"The court jurisdiction is limited to crimes committed by nationals of member states or crimes committed on territories of member states.
Neither Lebanon nor Israel are member states of the court," said Christian Palme, spokesperson for the ICC chief prosecutor.
At least 1 005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in four weeks of bloodshed triggered when Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
The mounting toll has fuelled international outcry against Israel's tactics in the four-week-old war.
Israel says its strikes destroy Hizbollah infrastructure and stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
Gaddafi's son Islam, his father's most influential envoy abroad, called on July 20 for Arab leaders to divert windfall revenues from record high oil prices to help Lebanese and Palestinian people weathering Israeli attacks.
The ICC was set up in 2002 as the first permanent court to try individuals for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity where states cannot or will not act.
The court is fiercely opposed by the United States, which fears it will be abused for political prosecutions of its soldiers and citizens.
Palme said any individual or organisation can send letters on alleged crimes to the court. The ICC then conducts a preliminary investigation before responding to the letters.
- Additional reporting by Anna Mudeva in Amsterdam