The International Criminal Court will not action over Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed in 2010.
Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that despite having “reasonable basis” to believe war crimes had been committed, the incident would not be of “sufficient gravity” to justify further action by the ICC.
She added that she did not want to minimise the impact of alleged crimes on victims and their families, but the ICC had to prioritise war crimes committed on a large scale - as dictated by the Rome statue, the founding treaty of the ICC.
Ten Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident on the Turkish-owned ship, Mavi Marmara, as it attempted to breach a blockade of the Hamas-run territory.
Israel said the ICC had wasted time on a "politically motivated" complaint.
In total, there were six ships in the flotilla that were boarded in international waters about 80 miles from the Israeli coast on May 31, 2010.
