ICC condemns Israeli inaction to investigate war crimes in Gaza

The chief ICC prosecutor in remarks on Friday defended his decision to issue the arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant.

Khan emphasized that Israel had made "no real effort" to investigate into the 15-month-long campaign of death and destruction in the besieged Palestinian territory itself.

“We’re here as a court of last resort and … as we speak right now, we haven’t seen any real effort by Israel to take action that would meet the established jurisprudence,” he added.

“The question is, have those judges [in Israel], have those prosecutors, have those legal instruments been used to properly scrutinize the allegations that we’ve seen in the occupied Palestinian territories, in the State of Palestine? And I think the answer to that was ‘no’,” Khan said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khan also strongly criticized the US House of Representatives’ vote last week to sanction the ICC for issuing an arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

The chief prosecutor says it “is a matter that should make all people of conscience be concerned”.

The US earlier this month approved a bill to sanction the ICC officials in response to the arrest warrants that the tribunal has issued against Israeli authorities for war crimes in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

In December 2023, South Africa initiated legal proceedings against Israel, accusing it of breaching the Genocide Convention in its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.