Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Thursday asked [press release] for the court’s prosecutor to review her decision not to investigate the 2010 Israeli raid of a flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip. Review of the decision [AP report] was requested by the Union of Comoros. Israel’s Foreign Ministry strongly disagreed with the majority decision by Judges Joyce Aluoch, Cuno Tarfusser and Péter Kovàcs request for reconsideration of the decision. During the 2010 Israeli Gaza flotilla raid, which has been characterized by opponents as an attack [JURIST commentary] on several Turkish ships bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder], 9 people were killed and more than 50 were seriously wounded. Israeli forces also confiscated or destroyed equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The May 2010 raid has received much international attention over the last four years. Last May a Turkish court called for international arrest warrants [JURIST report] for four former Israeli military chiefs involved in the interception. In 2012 a Turkish court opened the trial [JURIST report] in absentia for the former Israeli military commanders accused of killing nine Turkish citizens aboard the Mavi Marmara as it attempted to pass through the Gaza blockade. The UN in 2011 criticized [JURIST report] Israel for using excessive and unreasonable force during the interception. The UN Security Council called [JURIST report] for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” into the raid in June 2010.