THE prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday (23/8) stressed that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israeli citizens and urged judges to immediately decide on arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In an ICC document made public Friday, Prosecutor Karim Khan urged judges considering arrest warrants to issue them immediately. “Any unjustified delay in this process is detrimental to the rights of victims,” he said.
He stressed that the ICC has jurisdiction over Israeli citizens who commit crimes and atrocities in the Palestinian Territories and called on judges to reject lawsuits filed by a number of countries and other parties.
“It is well established law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” the document said, rejecting legal arguments based on the terms of the Oslo Accords and Israel’s assertion that it is conducting its own investigation into alleged war crimes.
Israel continues to commit genocide in the war-torn Gaza Strip. The Zionists ignore all rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In its legally binding ruling, the ICJ ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
Israel has been pounding Gaza since October 7 last year, resulting in at least 40,265 Palestinians killed and more than 93,144 others injured. At least 10,000 people are also unaccounted for. They are believed to have died buried under rubble throughout the Gaza Strip.
International organizations and Palestinians say the majority of victims are women and children. The Israeli aggression has also forced nearly two million people from across the Gaza Strip to flee.
Most of them were forced to leave the densely populated southern city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, in what is said to be the largest mass exodus of Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948. (Ant/Z-2)
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