Five countries that signed the treaty establishing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today called for an investigation into the possibility that war crimes are being committed in Palestine.
“My office has received a request regarding the situation in the State of Palestine from the following five Member States: South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia (…) Comoros and Djibouti,” Prosecutor Karim Khan announced today, confirming that the International Court is already investigating the situation.
Expression of #ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC about the situation in the state #Palestine: receipt of referral from five States Parties ⤵️ https://t.co/CsR0dbVL4t
– International Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) November 17, 2023
The ICJ – a United Nations body established in 2002 to prosecute the world’s worst atrocities – opened an investigation in 2021 into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories, including alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces, Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups .
Khan said his mandate would apply to alleged crimes committed during the current war, which began on October 7 after an attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli territory.
However, the prosecutor warns that at this time justice teams cannot enter Gaza, nor Israel, which is not a member of the International Court of Justice but could be accused of war crimes, according to international law experts.
A Member State may submit to the public prosecutor a case in which one or more crimes within the jurisdiction of the court may have been committed and ask him to investigate the situation to determine whether a specific person or persons should be charged stated.
“Since the beginning of my mandate, in June 2021, I have for the first time established a special team to advance the investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine,” the prosecutor said, adding that a lot of information has already been collected.
In Israel, 1,200 people have been killed since October 7, most of them civilians slaughtered on the day of the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas, with violence and on a scale unprecedented since Israel’s founding in 1948.
Since that date, Israel has launched a retaliatory offensive against Hamas in Gaza, killing more than 12,000 people in Hamas-controlled territory, according to the Health Ministry.
Source: DN
