The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Pre-Trial Tribunal postponed on Thursday the process of deciding whether to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Jerusalem Post reports.
The postponement came after England filed a “friend of the court” application against the ICC’s jurisdiction over the matter on June 10. Thursday’s decision not only granted Britain’s request to intervene, but also gave other countries the right to intervene in advance. The ICC gave England and other countries until July 12 to file their briefs.
Moreover, the ICC said their briefs and the entire deliberative process could be made public, even though the procedure for issuing an arrest warrant is usually kept secret so as not to alarm the suspect.
The three-judge panel ruled:
Whilst the following must not be understood as an open call by the Chamber for amicus curiae submissions, the Chamber acknowledges that the Request, and the Chamber’s decision to grant the United Kingdom leave to file observations, may result in other requests to submit observations. To limit the impact of this procedure on the expeditiousness of the present stage of the proceedings, the Chamber indicates already in the present decision that any such requests pursuant to rule 103(1) of the Rules must also be received by July 12 2024.
ICC prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant on May 20, accusing them of involvement in the destruction of Gaza Strip residents and causing them severe suffering. In addition, Khan requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders. According to the ICC prosecutor, the country has every right to self-defence and the return of hostages, but no one has a “licence” to commit war crimes.
Americans condemn the court, but selectively
The prosecutor’s demand for Israeli authorities was sharply condemned by US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Netanyahu himself called the comparison between the Israel Defence Forces and Hamas “a new anti-Semitism.”
However, when the ICC in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, US officials backed the court.
After the Hamas attack on Israeli territory, the Israeli authorities imposed a complete siege of the Gaza Strip: water, electricity and fuel were not supplied to the enclave. On October 15, the water supply to southern Gaza was restored. The Israeli authorities claimed that the purpose of the military operation was to destroy Hamas militants and release all Israeli hostages.
Earlier, human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement accusing the Israeli government of using starvation as a method of war in the “occupied Gaza Strip”. The organisation considered the actions of the Israeli army a war crime.
