No legal basis to suspend arrest warrants for Israeli officials: ICC prosecutor

LONDON (AA) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor said Friday that Israel’s appeal against the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister should be dismissed.

In a document posted on the ICC website, Karim Khan requested the dismissal of Israel’s appeal as the decision is not subject to appeal as of now, though an appeal could potentially be filed at a later stage.

Israel on Wednesday filed a direct appeal before the Appeals Chamber to the Pre-Trial Chamber I’s “decision on Israel’s challenge to the jurisdiction of the Court pursuant to article 19(2) of the Rome Statute.”

Last week, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister since the start of the Gaza war until earlier this month, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

He said: “The Decision is not a decision ‘with respect to jurisdiction’ and it is therefore not directly appealable under article 82(1)(a) of the Statute.

“Accordingly, these appeal proceedings should be discontinued and Israel’s Suspension Request be rejected while the proceedings before PreTrial Chamber with respect to the same Decision follow their course,” added the prosecutor.

“In any event, there is no legal basis to suspend the arrest warrants issued by the Pre-Trial Chamber.”

Israel has killed over 44,300 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October last year and injured nearly 105,000.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.