Workers Revolutionary Party THE chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, confirmed on Wednesday that the ICC has opened a formal investigation into war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Bensouda’s announcement was welcomed as ‘a historic day in the decades-long Palestinian campaign for international justice and accountability’ by Palestinian human rights groups. The human rights group Amnesty International hailed the decision as a momentous breakthrough with Matthew Cannock, head of Amnesty’s Centre for International Justice, saying: ‘Today’s confirmation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that she has opened an investigation into crimes under international law committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is a momentous breakthrough for justice after decades of non-accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity.’