Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was beaten on the head and body during a raid in June 2021 in the occupied West Bank.
His family urged the ICC to prosecute those responsible, saying they had lost confidence in the PA's judiciary.
It is the first time a Palestinian has referred their leadership to the court.
The PA has not commented on the move, but it has apologised for Banat's death and charged 14 low-ranking security officers with taking part in the beating and other offences.
Banat, who was 42, was known for social media posts in which he accused powerful individuals of corruption and called on Western countries to stop providing financial assistance to the PA, which governs parts of the West Bank that are not under full Israeli control.
He was arrested and allegedly tortured eight times by the PA's forces in the years before his death.
On 24 June 2021, Banat was sleeping at his cousin's home in the southern West Bank city of Hebron when it was raided by Preventive Security Service officers. His family allege that the officers beat him with metal bars before taking him away. He later died while still in their custody.
A Palestinian human rights group said a post mortem indicated that Banat's death was "unnatural", with evidence of "bruises and abrasions in many areas of the body", including the head, neck and chest, as well as "binding marks on the wrists and rib fractures".
His death sparked rare protests in Ramallah, with crowds demanding the resignation of President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in power since 2005 and cancelled long-delayed elections last year.
Military prosecutors subsequently charged a Preventive Security Service commander and 13 other officers who were involved in the arrest. They all pleaded not guilty at the start of their military trial in September 2021.
The Banat family's lawyer, Hakan Camuz, said "multiple postponements, witnesses smearing and the grotesque temporary release" of the defendants for a nine-day holiday in June had marred the proceedings to the point where they had decided to drop the military case.
They instead resolved to submit a referral to ICC's prosecutor, who will conduct a preliminary examination to decide whether there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation.
"For those of us who live in corrupt countries where genuine justice is out of reach, the ICC remains our hope for an unpoliticised investigation and prosecution of criminals," Banat's brother, Ghassan, said outside the court in The Hague on Thursday.
"The way they killed him and are trying to get away with it reflects the level of impunity and of moral corruption that plagues this regime," he added.
The ICC prosecutor opened a formal investigation into alleged war crimes in the occupied territories last year, following a request from the Palestinians. Israel, which rejects the ICC's jurisdiction, said it would not co-operate.
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