ICC gives Israel month to ask for war crimes probe delay

The International Criminal Court has given Israel and the Palestinians one month to ask the tribunal to postpone its war crimes investigation, provided they can prove they are carrying out their own probes. The ICC's chief prosecutor announced on March 3 that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories -- infuriating Israel, which is not a member of the Hague-based court. A deferral notice was "sent on March 9 to all member states of the ICC, including all states that would normally exercise jurisdiction -- including Israel and Palestine," an official in the prosecutor's office told AFP yesterday. The notice, sent under Article 18 of the court's founding document, the Rome Statute, gives countries a month to tell judges they are investigating crimes similar to those being probed by the ICC. The probe will mainly focus on the 2014 Gaza War but also look at the deaths of Palestinian demonstrators from 2018 onwards.