The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said that she is convinced that there is a reasonable basis for believing that war crimes had been committed in Palestine, which prompts her to open an investigation on the situation in Palestine, based on Article 53, paragraph 1, of the Rome Statute. She also demonstrated that the jurisdiction of the regional court includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
However, the Prosecutor requested a final judgment on this issue by the pre-trial chamber of the court to confirm the jurisdiction of the regional court in Palestine under the Article 19 paragraph 3, due to the controversial nature of the case, and in order to ensure that there is no coming defect.
Member states and independent experts had been invited to present their observations to the court, which demonstrated the existence of a large number of views and may help in providing a great legitimacy to the court’s final decision. The submitted requests were distributed among 11 groups of victims, 31 state parties to the court (whether they were directly states or international organizations), and 33 academics along with non-governmental organizations.
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