ICC prosecutor insists the court has the power to issue warrants for Israeli leaders linked to Gaza

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Friday called on judges to “urgently” rule on his request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others linked to the Israel-Hamas war, saying the court has jurisdiction.

“It is settled law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” Prosecutor Karim Khan wrote in a 49-page legal brief.

Khan called on a panel of ICC pretrial judges to “urgently render its decisions” on the requests he filed in May for warrants for Netanyahu, his defense minister, Yoav Gallant and three leaders of Hamas, two of whom have since been killed.

The brief filed by Khan came in response to legal arguments filed by dozens of countries, academics, victims’ groups and rights groups either rejecting or supporting the court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.

In his May request for arrest warrants, Khan accused Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Haniyeh and Deif have since been killed. Sinwar, Hamas’ top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks, was subsequently named the group’s new leader.

Netanyahu called the prosecutor’s accusations against him a “disgrace,” and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel. He vowed to press ahead with Israel’s war against Hamas. 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.

The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed Israel, killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted around 250. About 110 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Israeli offensive launched in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many were militants or civilians.

Many of the legal arguments filed to ICC judges in recent weeks focussed largely on the issue of whether the court’s power to issue warrants for Israeli leaders is overruled by a provision of the 1993 Oslo Accords peace deal. As part of the deal, the Palestinians agreed that they don’t have criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals.

Khan insisted the argument that the accords could nullify the court’s jurisdiction is “without merit.”

He called the legal argument “inconsistent with the proper interpretation and application” of an article in the court’s founding Rome Statute and “misunderstands basic concepts of jurisdiction under international law, including under the law of occupation, and how these concepts relate to the interpretation and application of the Statute.”

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