JERUSALEM (JTA) – A delegation from the International Criminal Court will visit Israel at the end of the month as part of a preliminary inquiry into accusations of war crimes.
The delegation from the ICC prosecutor’s office is scheduled to come to Israel on June 27, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Thursday, citing unnamed senior Palestinian sources. The court reportedly informed the Palestinian Authority of the visit.
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas signed the requests to join the ICC and other international conventions late last December after the United Nations Security Council failed to pass a Palestinian statehood proposal.
In January, ICC prosecutors opened a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank dating to the end of June 2014, just before the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza. The prosecutors will determine whether preliminary findings merit a full investigation into alleged atrocities and possible charges against Israeli and/or Palestinian officials.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki told The Associated Press on Thursday that he will travel to the Hague on June 25 to deliver to ICC prosecutors files containing reports on Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, and about Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Israel has not provided any information to the ICC for the investigation.
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