Israel has reacted strongly against a decision by the International Criminal Court to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinians during the fighting last summer in the Gaza Strip.
A prosecutor in The Hague, The Netherlands, began a preliminary probe Friday that could lead to full investigation of war crimes charges resulting from Operation Protective Edge. The operation was Israel's military response to Palestinian kidnappings, murders and rocket attacks against Israelis last July and August.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blasted the decision.
"It is absolutely scandalous that just days after terrorists butchered Jews in France, the general prosecutor is beginning an inquiry against the state of the Jews, and this only because we defend our citizens from Hamas, a terrorist organization that is allied with the Palestinian Authority," Netanyahu said in a statement.
"Hamas war criminals fired thousands of rockets at Israeli citizens," he added. "Unfortunately,[(this probe] renders [the ICC] part of the problem and not part of the solution."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also decried the ICC's action, saying it comes "entirely from political and anti-Israel considerations."
Lieberman recommended that Israel not cooperate with the ICC.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join the ICC after the U.N. Security Council rejected a resolution last December that would have set a three-year deadline for a Palestinian state in the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].
The Palestinians hope the ICC will use its influence to produce arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders if they travel outside Israel.
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