The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has called on its judges to issue arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders “with utmost urgency” as Israel renewed a diplomatic drive for allies to intervene on its behalf.
The prosecutor, Karim Khan, had in May sought warrants for three Hamas leaders, alongside the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe” all five had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a heavily redacted filing made public on Monday night, Khan called on the court’s chamber of judges to urgently issue four warrants, while dropping his request for a fifth warrant — against the Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh — after he was killed in Tehran in July in an attack widely blamed on Israel.