The Guardian / September 3, 2024
Sources within Israel’s justice ministry believe the International Criminal Court (ICC) will decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. The sources are “cautiously optimistic” the court will decide against issuing the warrants, according to Chen Maanit, a reporter from Haaretz.
ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al-Masri, and another Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Gallant and Netanyahu have both rejected the allegations put forward by the ICC’s prosecutor.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran late July. The court has since declined to comment on reports of his death. Israel has said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, but Hamas would neither confirm or deny this.
Haaretz reports:
The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants.
Nevertheless, they added, the court recently received 26 legal opinions supporting Israel from other countries, organizations and academics, and this bolsters the chances that it will reject the warrants. The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks.
____________
[VIDEO] The ICC’s case against Israel and Hamas explained
Middle East Eye / May 23, 2024
Will Benjamin Netanyahu face justice at the Hague? The International Criminal Court on Monday issued arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders over their actions in Gaza and on 7 October, accusing them both of committing war crimes.
It’s an unprecedented move, the first time a US-ally has been pursued by the ICC. Prosecutor Karim Khan says that the reputation of international law itself hangs in the balance, and that the decision must be respected in order to prove that “human beings wherever they may be have equal value”.
But it’s complicated. Both Israel and the US have vowed to fight it, and there’s a history of ICC member states refusing to hand over their allies to the court. This week on The Big Picture, we examine what the ICC case is, and what it will take to bring the war in Gaza to an end.
VIDEO : The ICC’s case against Israel and Hamas explained | The Big Picture S4E10 (youtube.com)
