International Criminal Court opens inquiry into possible Israeli war crimes

Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, opened preliminary inquiries into possible Israeli war crimes in Palestinian territories on Friday, The New York Times reports.

The investigation comes just a few weeks after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took steps to join the ICC — a move that was decried by both the U.S. and Israel as unilateral and combative in nature. Bensouda and her team will investigate whether Israel's actions during last summer's 50-day Gaza fighting qualify as war crimes, as the Palestinians assert. The inquiry could take years, and Bensouda described the examination in a Friday statement as required procedure. And, the team could charge Palestinians for similar war crimes against Israel.

Still, Israeli officials immediately lambasted the ICC and Palestinian Authority for the move; Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel may not cooperate with the inquiry, and that the country will attempt to disband the ICC, which he described as a body that "embodies hypocrisy and grants a tailwind to terrorism."

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