Karim Khan says the court has the power to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Hamas officials over the Gaza war.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called on judges to rule “urgently” on his request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others linked to the war in Gaza.
Prosecutor Karim Khan said: “Any unjustified delay in these proceedings negatively affects the rights of victims.”
Khan had sought arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders in May for alleged crimes committed during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in southern Israel and Israel's subsequent war on Gaza.
Khan stressed in court documents made public on Friday that the ICC had jurisdiction over Israeli citizens who commit atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territory and called on judges to dismiss legal challenges brought by several governments and other parties.
He rejected Israel's claims that it is conducting its own investigations into alleged war crimes.
ICC prosecutors have said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al-Masri and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Haniyeh was killed in Iran in July. The court has since declined to comment on reports of his death. Sinwar, the top Hamas official in Gaza who planned the Oct. 7 attacks, was later named the group's new leader.
Israel has said it killed al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in southern Gaza in July, but there has been no confirmation from Hamas.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have rejected the accusations of war crimes, and representatives of both sides have criticized Khan's decision to seek arrest warrants.
Netanyahu called the prosecutor's charges against him a “disgrace” and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.
Hamas also denounced Khan's actions, saying the call for its leaders' arrest equated “the victim with the executioner.”
Israel is not a member of the court, so even if arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant face no immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
It is not yet clear when the judges will rule on Khan's request for arrest warrants.
Gaza's health ministry says at least 40,265 people have been killed and 93,144 wounded in Israel's war on the enclave. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken prisoner.
