The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has given the green light on Wednesday to an investigation in Palestine after the judges confirmed last February that the court has jurisdiction to try alleged war crimes allegedly perpetrated by all parties in conflict in the territories occupied by Israel.
“The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that have allegedly been committed since June 13, 2014,” said the ICC attorney general, Fatou Bensouda, in a statement. The court has conducted a preliminary investigation for five years to determine that there were grounds to investigate possible criminal actions.
Among them are alleged crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in 2014, such as disproportionate use of force and premeditated executions, as well as the actions of the Islamist group Hamas that same year, including torture. It will also be investigated whether Tel Aviv has committed war crimes with the Israeli occupation of territories in the West Bank and Gaza.
In December 2019, Bensouda was convinced that “war crimes had been committed in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip”.
