Iran Press/Middle East: "I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine," Fatou Bensouda saying in a statement on Friday.
The Palestinians welcomed the move by the ICC as a "long overdue step" following a nearly five-year preliminary probe by the prosecutor into the situation since the 2014 war in Gaza. But Israeli regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly saying the decision made the Hague-based court, which Tel Aviv has refused to sign up since its creation in 2002, a "political tool", AFP reported.
In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank," she added.
Bensouda also said that because the Palestinian Territories had requested the intervention of the court she did not need to request approval from judges to start an investigation, according to the daily Independent.
The international community has widely discredited Israel’s claims over Palestinian lands, wrote the London-based publication.
Israel and the United States have refused to sign up to the court, which was set up in 2002 to be the only global tribunal trying the world's worst crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last year, then White House national security adviser John Bolton threatened to arrest ICC judges if they moved against Israel or the United States.
"Palestine welcomes this step as a long-overdue step to move the process forward towards an investigation, after nearly five long and difficult years of a preliminary examination," read a statement issued by the Palestinian Authority.
The ICC's preliminary investigation has looked at the 2014 war which left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, the majority civilians, and 74 on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers.
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