THE International Criminal Court said today that Israeli troops who slaughtered Gaza-bound aid campaigners in 2010 may have committed war crimes — but not grave enough to warrant prosecution.

Israeli special forces boarded the Mavi Marmara and killed eight unarmed Turks and an unarmed US citizen of Turkish origin.

“This is a moral struggle that we’re pursuing by ourselves. It’s a legal struggle, a struggle in the name of humanity. This struggle isn’t over,” said Turkish lawyer Ramazan Ariturk in Istanbul. 

“We will object to a higher court at the International Criminal Court and we believe without a doubt that we will prevail.”

Apart from the nine killed, several other activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship.

“Following a thorough legal and factual analysis of the information available, I have concluded that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court were committed on one of the vessels, the Mavi Marmara, when Israeli Defence Forces intercepted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31 2010,” Gambian prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said yesterday.

But Ms Bensouda maintained that any cases relating to the storming of the Mavi Marmara would not be “of sufficient gravity” to justify further action by the ICC.

“Without in any way minimising the impact of the alleged crimes on the victims and their families, I have to be guided by the Rome Statute, in accordance with which the ICC shall prioritise war crimes committed on a large scale or pursuant to a plan or policy,” she said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision to close a case it called “legally unfounded and politically motivated.”

Mr Ariturk pointed to another ICC case in Sudan, where it opened the prosecution of rebel Abu Garda, who was accused of leading an attack on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur in which 11 people died.

He said that the ICC had accepted the gravity of the Abu Garda case, adding: “In this situation, the International Criminal Court has set a double standard and the International Criminal Court has nullified itself.”