The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced yesterday that it had accepted 64 filings by countries, organisations and individuals to intervene and submit legal observations regarding requests by Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants against officials from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and leaders of the Hamas movement.
The court had requested that parties submit their comments, which should not exceed ten pages, by 6 August.
Among the countries whose filings were accepted were the US, Germany, Palestine, Norway, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Mexico (jointly), the Union of the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Djibouti.
Requests from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League, and pro-Israel figures, including US Senator Lindsey Graham, and Jewish academics were also accepted.
On 20 May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he was seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and three leaders of the Hamas movement, including its head, Ismail Haniyeh, on charges of committing “war crimes.”
Khan said he had “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Israeli officials “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.”
Since 7 October 2023, Israel, with American support, has been waging a war on Gaza that has left more than 129,000 Palestinians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and deadly famine.
READ: Dozens of filings flood ICC’s Israel-Hamas case, causing delays