Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provides a press convention on the Authorities Press Workplace in Jerusalem on September 4, 2024. (Photograph by ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP)
JERUSALEM — Israel stated on Friday it had submitted an “official problem” to a request from the Worldwide Felony Court docket prosecutor for an arrest warrant towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in Might requested the court docket challenge arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged battle crimes and crimes towards humanity in Gaza.
Israel has waged battle in Gaza towards Hamas for the reason that Palestinian Islamist group’s unprecedented assault on southern Israel on October 7.
“The State of Israel submitted as we speak its official problem to the ICC’s jurisdiction, in addition to the legality of the prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants towards Israel’s prime minister and minister of protection,” overseas ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein stated on X.
Khan additionally sought warrants towards high Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif on suspicion of battle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
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The prosecutor dropped the appliance for Haniyeh on August 2 “due to the modified circumstances brought on by Mr. Haniyeh’s demise” in Tehran on July 31, the ICC stated in an announcement this month.
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Based on Israel, Deif was killed by a strike on July 13 in southern Gaza, although Hamas denies he’s lifeless.
The court docket remains to be weighing Khan’s software for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant.
In August, Khan’s workplace urged the court docket to take motion “with utmost urgency,” saying that it was “settled regulation that the court docket has jurisdiction on this scenario.”
Authorized battle
Hamas’s October 7 assaults that sparked the Gaza battle resulted within the deaths of 1,205 folks, principally civilians, on the Israeli facet, in accordance with an AFP tally based mostly on Israeli official figures that embrace hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are nonetheless held in Gaza, together with 33 the Israeli navy says are lifeless.
Israel’s retaliatory navy offensive has killed at the least 41,272 folks in Gaza, most of them civilians, in accordance with figures supplied by the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as dependable.
In contrast to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), which offers with disputes between nations, the ICC tries people suspected of probably the most heinous crimes.
It’s the world’s solely impartial court docket set as much as probe the gravest offenses, together with genocide, battle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
Nevertheless, it depends on its member states to hold out arrest warrants and has no police pressure of its personal.
Khan’s expenses towards Netanyahu and Gallant embrace “hunger of civilians”, “extermination”, and “deliberately directing assaults towards a civilian inhabitants”.
US President Joe Biden has denounced Khan’s bid for arrest warrants for the Israeli officers as “outrageous”, saying “there isn’t any equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
Neither america nor Israel are members of the court docket, however accused events are allowed to boost authorized challenges even when they aren’t members.
The Israeli challenges had been submitted to the court docket’s pre-trial judges, who will resolve whether or not or to not challenge arrest warrants, Israeli officers stated on Friday.
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Marmorstein stated on Friday that Khan had failed “to offer Israel with the chance to train its proper to analyze by itself the claims raised by the prosecutor, earlier than continuing.”
