ICC Prosecutor Seeks Immediate Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Sinwar

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has urged the court to “urgently render its decisions” on the issuance of arrest warrants for five leaders of Israel and Hamas. His submission, which was made public on Aug. 23 (cf. SAS 21/24). , follows on the request he originally filed in May, accusing those leaders of commiting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel.

Since then, the court has postponed any action as it continues to hear objections from different states as to the ICC’s jurisdiction in the matter. Khan argues, however, that “any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims”. Therefore, he asks the ICC judges to proceed with arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas officials Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Ibrahim al-Masri (Deif). Since then, Israel has summarily executed Haniyeh and Deif, and is still attempting, reportedly with the active collaboration of U.S. intelligence services, to assassinate Sinwar, the leader of Hamas since the death of Haniyeh.