Romana Rubeo
The Palestine Chronicle / August 24, 2024
Karim Khan urged an expedited ruling from judges on the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has requested an expedited ruling from judges on the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant while emphasizing that the court holds jurisdiction to prosecute Israeli nationals.
In court documents released on Friday, prosecutor Karim Khan pressed judges to avoid delays in considering the arrest warrants requested for Israeli officials and Hamas leaders, Reuters news agency reported.
“Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims,” Khan was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“It is settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation,” the filing said, dismissing claims by Israel that it is carrying out its own investigations into alleged war crimes.
Reasonable grounds
In May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that the court filed applications for arrest warrants against several Israeli leaders and leaders of the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.
Khan said he had “reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023.”
If arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant would be unable to travel to any of the 124 member countries of the ICC, where its rulings are binding.
Israel does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. The court, established in 2002, accepted Palestine as a member after 13 years.
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,265 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,144 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle
