Who are the experts backing ICC warrants against Israel, Hamas leaders?
Al Jazeera
Amal Clooney was on the panel that advised the ICC prosecutor who applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), released a statement on Monday saying he had applied for arrest warrants for top leaders of Israel and Hamas whom his team suspects of committing war crimes and “crimes against humanity” during and since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year in which about 1,140 people were killed.
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has continued for more than seven months since that attack, has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly women and children, with thousands more lost and feared dead under the rubble.
The ICC is seeking arrest warrants for five individuals – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known as Mohamed Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh.
In his statement, Khan praised the panel of experts he had convened to review the evidence and provide legal analysis to support these arrest warrants. He said its members have “immense standing in international humanitarian law and international criminal law”.
In an article for the Financial Times, the panel of experts collectively wrote that this is not the first time an international prosecutor has convened such a panel to seek advice regarding conflict and that it is not unusual for a prosecutor to invite external experts to participate in an evidence review.
