U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a call by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, reaffirmed U.S. opposition to an international criminal court investigation into possible war crimes in Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian said. White House.
The call, the first between the two since Harris and President Joe Biden began in January, came a day after an ICC prosecutor said she would launch the investigation, prompting a quick rejection by Washington and Jerusalem.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who will replace British prosecutor Karim Khan on June 16, said in December 2019 that war crimes were or were committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She cited both the Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinian armed groups as Hamas as perpetrators of crime.
Harris and Netanyahu noted their governments “oppose the efforts of the International Criminal Court to exercise its sovereignty over Israeli workers,” the White House said.