Palestine has formally joined the International Criminal Court, an important step to pursue war crimes charges against Israel.
The Palestinian Authority signed the Rome Statute in January became the 123rd member of the ICC at a low-key ceremony in The Hague on Wednesday, attended by Foreign Minister Riad Malki.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch urged pressure by governments seeking to penalise the Palestinians for joining the ICC to end.
"What's objectionable is the attempts to undermine international justice, not Palestine's decision to join a treaty to which over 100 countries around the world are members," said Balkees Jarrah, of HRW.
Israel and the US objected to the joining of Palestine, saying it wasn’t a sovereign state.
ICC starts war crimes investigation in Palestinian territory (16 January 2015)
Palestine submits documents to join ICC (03 January 2015)