THE HAGUE, November 17. /TASS/. Five countries have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the situation in Palestine, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said on Friday.

These five countries are Bangladesh, Bolivia, Djibouti, South Africa, and the Comoros.

Under the Rome Statute, any member country may inform the prosecutor about a situation when it thinks one or more crimes falling under the court’s jurisdiction were committed to decide whether one or more persons ought to be sued.

Such notions, however, are rather symbolic, as since March 3, 2021, the ICC has been investigating crimes committed after June 12, 2014 in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Eastern Jerusalem. "It continues and covers the escalation of hostilities and violence after the October 7, 2023 attacks," Khan said.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.