Situation on the Registered Vessels of the Union of the Comoros, the Hellenic Republic, & the Kingdom of Cambodia

In 2010, a group of activists set sail from Turkey on a flotilla consisting of six ships, carrying humanitarian supplies for people living in Gaza. Israel (defendant), which had set up and was operating a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, intercepted and boarded the flotilla. Israeli soldiers engaged in combat with activists on one ship called the Mavi Marmara. The facts were disputed as to which group attacked first, but 10 activists were killed, and dozens more were injured. Israeli forces then took custody of the ships and their passengers and allegedly abused the captives. There was widespread international coverage of and outrage over the incident. The Republic of Comoros referred the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation because the incident took place on its territory, as the Mavi Marmara was registered to Comoros. Comoros was a member of the ICC, but Israel was not. The ICC prosecutor (plaintiff) concluded that although there was a reasonable basis to believe that Israeli forces committed war crimes, the incident was not grave enough to warrant criminal charges due to the small scale of the event, encompassing a limited number of victims and ships. The ICC’s pre-trial chamber (PTC) reversed the prosecutor’s charging decision and remanded for reconsideration, finding that the prosecutor gave too little weight to the impact of the crimes on the victims and their families when analyzing the gravity of the situation and that the prosecutor should also have considered any suffering imposed on indirect victims, like the people of Gaza. After reexamining the case, the prosecutor again declined to prosecute and criticized the PTC’s decision. Comoros appealed, and the PTC again rejected the prosecutor’s decision not to charge. The prosecutor appealed.