ICC delegation to visit Israel, Palestinian territories end of month

A high-ranking delegation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of July, a senior Palestinian official said on Monday.

Reyad al-Malki, foreign affairs minister of the Palestinian National Authority, told Voice of Palestine Radio that Israel has not yet given its approval to the visit.

"We have been holding contacts with the Egyptian side to ensure the ICC delegation's arrival to the Gaza Strip through Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in case Israel refuses to approve the visit," said al-Malki.

He noted that the delegation will take a close look at the real situation in the Gaza Strip and the mass destruction caused in Israel's military offensive against the coastal enclave last summer.

The mini war left 2,220 Palestinians dead, including at least 1,492 civilians, according to the UN. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers were killed along with five civilians.

"We are trying to arrange meetings for the ICC delegation members and Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails to brief them in details on how life looks like in Israeli prisons," said al-Malki.

On June 25, the senior Palestinian diplomat headed a delegation to The Hague, handing the ICC two files concerning the Israeli settlement and the Israeli war waged on the Gaza Strip last year. Palestine officially became an ICC member in April.

It is the first time ever in the history that the Palestinians apply to the ICC, asking for international probes into possible war crimes committed by Israel, while Israel said earlier it refuses to deal with the ICC, and issued last month a report saying what it had done in Gaza is "lawful."

Meanwhile, al-Malki added that France intends to submit to the United Nations Security Council on reviving the stalled Middle East peace process "still exists."

Fatou Bensouda, The ICC's chief prosecutor, said in May that she was still weighing the options to open war crimes probes into the military campaign last summer.

She also rejected Israel's fears of bias by the court, and promised to consider the evidence independently and impartially without fear or favor.

"We will of course look into the alleged crimes committed by all sides to the conflict. I have made this clear to both Israeli and Palestinian officials," she said.

Bensouda said that so far her deliberations were still at a preliminary stage and no investigation had been opened into anyone from either side. The ICC is now still at a preliminary stage, and no formal investigations have been called. Yet Israel still branded such deliberations are absurd. Endit