THE chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has urged judges to “urgently” rule on the request for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and senior Hamas figures.
We previously told how requests for arrest warrants had been made for the Israeli PM, defence minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas leaders for alleged crimes committed during the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
Prosecutor Karim Khan said that “any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims”.
In court filings made public on Friday, Khan said that the ICC had jurisdiction over Israeli nationals who commit atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territory.
He also asked judges to dismiss legal challenges filed by several governments and other parties.
Khan further rejected claims by Israeli that it is carrying out its own investigations into alleged war crimes.
Prosecutors have said there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al-Masri and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh bear criminal responsibility over alleged war crimes.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July while Israel has said it killed al-Masri in the same month, but there has been no confirmation on this from Hamas, Al-Jazeera reports.
Netanyahu called the prosecutor’s actions against him a “disgrace” and an attack on Israel while Hamas also denounced the actions.
Israel is not a member of the court meaning that even if warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face the threat of immediate risk of prosecution.
However, the threat of arrest could make it difficult for them to travel abroad
It was previously reported that Labour dropped the previous government’s objection to the ICC’s application for the warrant.
In March 2023, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Gaza’s ministry of health, more than 40,000 people have been killed and more than 93,000 wounded in Israel’s bombardment.
An estimated 1139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.
