• Israel opens embassy in Abu Dhabi after approval of Emirati embassy in Tel Aviv

  • Israel bombs Hamas sites after rocket launches from Gaza

  • Israel: 2 rockets from Gaza, intercepted by the Iron Dome system

  • UN: "Israel halts construction of new housing in East Jerusalem"

  • Israel-Emirates-Bahrain agreement, Palestinian anger: rockets from Gaza on Israel

Share

05 February 2021 The Preliminary Section I of the International Criminal Court in The Hague decided, by a majority, that the territorial jurisdiction of the Court over the situation in Palestine, a State party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, extends to the Territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

It can be read on the official website of the Hague Court.



The decision opens up the possibility that prosecutor Fatou Bensouda initiates war crimes investigations into Israeli military actions.

Bensouda said in 2019 that "reasonable grounds" exist for opening such investigations into actions in the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

However, he had asked the Court to determine whether he had territorial jurisdiction before proceeding.



The court then approved prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's request to open proceedings against Israel and Hamas for war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, writes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. 



The Palestinians, who joined the court in 2015, pushed for the investigation.

Israel, which is not a member, has argued that the Court has no jurisdiction because the Palestinians do not have a state and because the borders of a possible future state must be decided in peace talks.



Palestinians have asked the court to investigate Israeli actions in the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip, as well as settlement-building activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.



The international community largely considers the settlements illegal under international law, but has not almost pressured Israel to freeze or resize them.



Netanyahu: "Political

ruling

, we will protect Israel"

"Today the Court has once again proved that it is a political body and not a judicial institution".

So the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, according to what Haaretz reports, after the verdict.



"The Court ignores real war crimes, and instead persecutes Israel, a country with a stable democratic regime that supports the rule of law and is not a member of the Court. With this decision - he added - the Court has damaged the right of democratic nations to defend themselves from terrorism ".

"We will continue to protect our citizens and soldiers in every way from legal persecution," Netanyahu stressed.



The Jerusalem Post claims that the go-ahead for the criminal investigation was given by Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian whose term ends in June.

She had conducted a preliminary investigation into alleged war crimes and claims that the investigation can examine actions taken in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

According to Bensouda, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, and Israel violated the laws of war during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and the 2018 Gaza border riots.



The prosecutor also accused Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups of taking to target Israeli civilians and to use Palestinians as human shields. 



NPC: "The Hague sentence is a victory for justice"

"A victory for truth, justice, freedom and the moral values ​​of the world".

Thus the Palestinian National Authority, through the mouth of the Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, comments on the decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Local media reported it.



Washington worried about decision 

The United States said it was "seriously concerned" about the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that could pave the way for a war crimes investigation.

"We are seriously concerned about the ICC's attempts to exercise jurisdiction over the Israeli army. We have always adopted the position that court jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that accept it or are referred by the Security Council of Israel. United Nations, "US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.