The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says she has opened a preliminary probe into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories. Fatou Bensouda said in a statement on Friday she will conduct the preliminary examination in "full independence and impartiality." The announcement comes after the Palestinian Authority acceded to the court's founding treaty and recognized its jurisdiction dating back to the eve of last summer's Gaza war. That move opened the door to an ICC investigation that could target possible crimes by both Israel, which is not a member of the court, and Palestinians. A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but weighs information about possible crimes and jurisdiction issues to establish whether a full investigation is merited.A report released by Amnesty International in November accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes in Gaza during attacks on the Gaza Strip this past summer that left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead. The group investigated eight cases and said in the report: "In the eight cases documented by Amnesty International in this report, Israeli aircraft dropped aerial bombs on or launched missiles at homes they knew or should have known had civilians inside. The attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 111 individuals, including at least 104 civilians, and injured many others. Some 34 apartments and neighboring houses, home to more than 150 people, were destroyed or badly damaged in these attacks."Palestine's ICC membership is of crucial importance internationally. Palestine aims to bring human rights violations and war crimes committed by Israeli troops to the court since Israeli actions remain unpunished despite many reports by the U.N. or independent nongovernmental organizations that have shown that Israel committed war crimes several times. The Palestinian permanent observer at the U.N., Riyad Mansour, submitted the official application to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December. Israel and the U.S. opposed the application, and both countries made statements explicitly saying that they will do their best to prevent Palestine from becoming a member of the ICC. However, EU countries disagreed with them and have declared that they do not oppose the ICC bid or the statehood issue. European parliaments including those in Spain, France and the U.K. have taken a first step to recognizing Palestine as an independent and sovereign state. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1.The killing of civilians raises concerns over Israel's apparent breaches of human rights and international law against the people of Gaza. During Israel's deadly assault on Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians faced a deteriorating humanitarian situation. The Israeli military offensive caused many Palestinians to seek refuge in safer areas. Apart from the death toll, at least 425,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip are in emergency shelters, according to the United Nations and nearly 12,000 homes were destroyed or partially damaged during Israeli raids.