The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said over the weekend she would launch a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem, and Gaza as soon as the court's jurisdiction had been established.
The announcement opens the possibility of charges being filed against Israelis or Palestinians.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The Palestinians welcomed the decision but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "a dark day for truth and justice," adding that the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate in the areas in question.
"The ICC only has jurisdiction over petitions submitted by sovereign states. But there has never been a Palestinian state," he said in a statement.
The ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said a preliminary examination into alleged war crimes, opened in 2015, had provided enough information to meet all criteria for opening an investigation.
"I am satisfied that ... war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip," Bensouda said in a statement.
She said there was a "reasonable basis" to believe Israeli forces, Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorist groups committed war crimes during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014. She also said Israeli authorities may have committed war crimes related to the "transfer of Israeli civilians into the West Bank," a reference to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Bensouda also said she had filed a request with judges for a jurisdictional ruling because of the contested legal status of those territories.
"Specifically, I have sought confirmation that the 'territory' over which the court may exercise its jurisdiction, and which I may subject to investigation, comprises the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and Gaza," Bensouda said.
Determining where she can investigate should be resolved before she starts an investigation "and not settled only later by judges after my investigations are completed," she said.
It is not clear when a decision would be made but Bensouda said she had asked the court to "rule expeditiously" and to allow potential victims to participate in proceedings.
"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 preliminary examination," the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, said in a statement.
PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the ICC decision was "a dark day in the history of Israel."
Netanyahu added that Bensouda's decision "has turned the International Criminal Court into a political tool to delegitimize the State of Israel. The prosecutor has completely ignored the legal arguments we presented to her."
In a legal opinion released Friday, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said the Palestinians do not meet the criteria of statehood because they do not have sovereignty over defined borders. Citing past peace agreements, Israel said the two sides had agreed to resolve their territorial dispute in negotiations.
"By approaching the ICC, the Palestinians are seeking to breach the framework agreed to by the parties and to push the Court to determine political issues that should be resolved by negotiations, and not by criminal proceedings," the legal opinion said.
The Palestinians insisted they are a fully-fledged member of the court and that the court has jurisdiction.
Human Rights Watch, which has documented alleged violations by all sides in the conflict, said the court should have moved more quickly to a full investigation.
"Bensouda's decision to seek guidance from the court's judges nearly five years into her preliminary inquiry means that perpetrators of serious crimes will not face justice at the ICC anytime soon," Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
"Palestinian and Israeli victims have faced a wall of impunity for serious violations committed against them for long enough. The prosecutor should have proceeded directly with a formal probe as was within her power to do."
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the United States did not believe Palestinians qualified as a sovereign state and added: "We firmly oppose this and any other action that seeks to target Israel unfairly."
The ICC has the authority to hear cases of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed within the territory of the 123 countries that have signed up to it. Israel has not joined the court but the Palestinian Authority has done so.
A Hamas spokesperson in Gaza welcomed Bensouda's decision "to open an investigation into the war crimes committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people."
