International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has publicly told a conference of the court’s Assembly of State Parties on Monday that he has a “goal” to make “a visit to Palestine” in 2023.
The public statement, made during this week’s conference, was Khan’s first major step into the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The ICC prosecutor, however, did not give any concrete time period, adding that he also intended to visit Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to human rights activists who were at the session and posted updates from it via Twitter which he hopes to visit.
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster said the ICC had confirmed that “a visit to Palestine is one of the prosecutor’s goals for next year.”
Khan’s remarks came one day after Al Jazeera Media Network submitted a formal request to the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israel’s killing of the veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
The complaint came in the middle of the ICC’s high-profile annual meeting of its Assembly of State Parties which govern it and formulate its budget.
In March 2021, then-ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a full criminal investigation against Israelis relating to the 2014 Gaza aggression, the 2018 Gaza Great March of Return and against the Israeli settlement.
This latest complaint will now become a part of that broader file since only the ICC Prosecutor, and not any third party, can decide whether to proceed with criminal charges.
However, until Wednesday, current ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan had not taken any public action on the probe since he took office in June 2021.
