ICC urged to launch probe into Israeli crimes

Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a formal investigation into serious Israeli crimes against the Palestinians over the past decades.

The HRW said in a statement Sunday that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda should carry out a formal probe consistent with the ICC’s Rome Statute.

ICC "shed light on the grave nature of many of the crimes and the pervasive climate of impunity for such offenses," the organization said, making the appeal on the anniversary of an Israeli war on Gaza in 2014.

    “After nearly a half century of impunity, it’s time that those responsible for some of the gravest crimes pay the price,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division.

    “The ICC prosecutor should move forward and investigate the crimes so that the victims can obtain a measure of justice that has long eluded them.”

Human Rights Watch, the UN and local and international human rights organizations have already said Israel’s latest war on the besieged Gaza Strip amounts to apparent war crimes.

Israel launched its 50-day onslaught on Gaza in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including over 570 children.

Gaza has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.