ICC to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in ‘coming days’ report says
Israel’s justice ministry ‘cautiously optimistic’ court will decide against issuing warrants, Haaretz reports Sources within Israel’s justice ministry believe the International Criminal Court (ICC) will decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports
The sources are “cautiously optimstic” the court will decide against issuing the warrants, according to Chen Maanit, a reporter from Haaretz
ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed Al-Masri and another Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity
Gallant and Netanyahu have both rejected the allegations put forward by the ICC’s prosecutor
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran late July. The court has since declined to comment on reports of his death Israel has said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif but Hamas would neither confirm or deny this
Haaretz reports: The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war as recommended by attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants
Nevertheless they added, the court recently received 26 legal opinions supporting Israel from other countries, organizations and academics and this bolsters the chances that it will reject the warrants
The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days or at most a few weeks
Again, there is no equivalence between Democratic Israel and murderous terrorists
