"The International Criminal Court will not necessarily open an investigation into the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, despite a pretrial chamber ordering the prosecutor last week to reconsider her decision to close her initial probe into the case, the court's chief prosecutor said Tuesday.
'The decision on whether to open an investigation depends on the facts and circumstances of each situation,' said Fatou Bensouda. 'We are carefully studying the decision and will decide on the next steps in due course'...
Some Israeli legal analysts said that this ruling leaves Bensouda no choice but to launch investigations not only into the flotilla case but also into Israel's alleged crimes against Palestinians.
The judges' decision 'has wider implications for preliminary examinations by the prosecutor on Israeli-Palestinian issues,' Tel Aviv University's international law expert Aeyal Gross wrote in Haaretz. 'The decision will make it difficult for her not to investigate alleged war crimes by both sides in last summer's Gaza war... Also, the decision might accelerate her launching of an investigation into construction in the settlements as well.'
But Bensouda - who in 2011 said that her Muslim faith 'definitely' helped her in her job as prosecutor, since Islam is a religion of peace that provides her with 'inner strength' and a 'sense of justice' - insisted that she will be guided exclusively by the facts and what the law says about them..."