Israeli PM blasts impending war crimes probe as ‘absurd’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the International Criminal Court’s decision to launch a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

"It's absurd of the ICC to ignore international law and agreements under which the Palestinians don't have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel,” Netanyahu said in West Jerusalem on Saturday, a day after the decision was made. “The rules of the ICC are clear: No state, no standing, no case."

The ICC’s preliminary probe will seek to determine whether early findings merit a full investigation into alleged atrocities, which could result in charges being brought against individuals in either Israeli or Palestinian territories.

Palestine applied to join the ICC in December and has since signed the Rome treaty, the charter that led to the formation of the court in 2002. Although it is due to join the ICC in April, its membership will be backdated to June 2014, meaning that the court will have jurisdiction to investigate last summer's offensive between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

The conflict resulted in the death of more than 2,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israeli says it lost 73 people, mostly soldiers.

Netanyahu said that Israel, which is not a state party to the ICC, upholds "high standards of international law" and that the country's "actions are subjected to careful and constant review of an independent legal system".

"This decision is even more preposterous given that Israel is legitimately defending itself against Palestinian terrorists who routinely commit multiple war crimes," Netanyahu said. "They deliberately fire thousands of rockets at our civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians whom they use as human shields."

Hamas said on Saturday that it welcomed the ICC’s decision and that it will provide the court with “thousands of reports” suggesting that Israel had committed “horrible crimes”.

"What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide [the court] with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

The United States Department said it was a “tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC". 

Palestinians are seeking statehood in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza in 2005 but the walled region remains under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.