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Decision opens the door for the tribunal’s prosecutor to open a war crimes investigation.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled it has jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, paving the way for the tribunal’s prosecutor to open a war crimes investigation.
Judges said on Friday their decision was based on jurisdictional rules in The Hague-based court’s founding documents and does not imply any attempt to determine statehood or legal borders.
“The Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine … extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” they said.
Israel, which is not a member of the court, has rejected its jurisdiction.
The court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in December 2019 there was “a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip”.
Bensouda named the Israel Defence Forces and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.
She asked judges to rule on whether the situation fell under the court’s jurisdiction, before a formal investigation would be opened.
In a majority ruling published on Friday, the judges said yes.
Israel and the United States reacted with furious condemnation of the court when the prosecutor made the announcement. The administration of then-US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the prosecutor and another senior ICC official in September.
The US, which is not a member of the ICC, inflicted the measures on the court after earlier visa bans on Bensouda and others failed to head off the court’s war crimes probe into US military personnel in Afghanistan.
The Palestinians have asked the court to look into Israeli actions during its 2014 assault against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.
The international community widely considers the settlements to be illegal under international law.
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