Israel told the International Criminal Court that it does not recognize the powers of the tribunal, which plans to investigate possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, Ynet reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to cooperate with the investigation after meeting with senior ministers and government officials before the deadline to respond to the ICC notice, which expires on Friday.

Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC and therefore, by definition, is not a party to the court.

ICC prosecutors said letters were sent to all interested parties on March 9, giving them a month to inform the court if they were conducting their own investigation of the alleged crimes and if they wanted to postpone the ICC investigation while it continued.

The Palestinians have said they will cooperate with the ICC, which is investigating alleged war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In his speech on Wednesday on the Holocaust, Netanyahu called the ICC investigation absurd.