"It is essential to bring Israel to account for the crimes committed in Palestine and the human rights violations it is responsible for and to provide international protection to Palestinians for ending the decades-long injustice in Palestine," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
"Otherwise, Israel will continue to commit these crimes with impunity due to the unconditional support of some third countries," Aksoy added.
He urged the ICC to initiate an investigation into this blatant support of Israeli violations of international law.
Numan Kurtulmus, the acting chair of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, also welcomed the ICC decision, calling it a "historic step".
"We call on all nations on the side of peace and humanity to support this effort," he said in a tweet, according to Anadolu.
"Palestine will eventually win, humanity will win," he concluded.
In a statement on Friday, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the court will launch a full investigation into war crimes in the Palestinian territories, expressing her satisfaction that there is a “reasonable basis" to probe into the situation in Palestine.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in a Friday statement welcomed the ICC plan, saying, "Palestine welcomes this step as a long-overdue step to move the process forward towards an investigation, after nearly five long and difficult years of preliminary examination."
Israel and the US, however, slammed the court's decision.
MNA/AA
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