ICC prosecutor urges judges to rule on warrants for Israeli, Hamas leaders

Karim Khan says the court has the power to issue the warrants against PM Netanyahu and Hamas officials over Gaza war.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called on judges to “urgently” rule on his request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others linked to the war on Gaza.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said that “any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims”.

Khan had applied for arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders in May for alleged crimes committed during the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza.

Khan stressed, in court filings made public on Friday, that the ICC had jurisdiction over Israeli nationals who commit atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territory and asked the judges to dismiss legal challenges filed by several governments and other parties.

He rejected claims by Israel that it is carrying out its own investigations into alleged war crimes.

ICC 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 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July. The court has since declined to comment on reports of his death. Sinwar, Hamas’s top official in Gaza who masterminded the October 7 attacks, was subsequently named the group’s new leader.

Israel has said it killed al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, in an air raid in southern Gaza in July, but there has been no confirmation from Hamas.

Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed allegations of war crimes, and representatives for both sides have criticised Khan’s decision to seek warrants.

Netanyahu called the prosecutor’s accusations against him a “disgrace”, and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.

Hamas also denounced Khan’s actions, saying the request to arrest its leaders equated “the victim with the executioner”.

Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.

It remains unclear when the judges will rule on Khan’s request for warrants.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says at least 40,265 people have been killed and 93,144 wounded in Israel’s war on the enclave. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.