Israel today submitted formal challenges to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests against Israeli leaders for their conduct of the Gaza war, the Foreign Ministry said according to Reuters.
Israel’s filings might further delay a decision on the warrants, requested in May against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan last month urged judges to rule on the warrants.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that its first legal brief outlined the ICC’s “manifest lack of jurisdiction” in the case.
The second paper, it said, argues that the ICC Prosecutor breached court rules by “failing to provide Israel with the opportunity to exercise its right to investigate by itself the claims raised by the Prosecutor, before proceeding.”
The office of the prosecutor could not immediately be reached for comment.
In August, Khan said the court has jurisdiction over any war crimes in occupied Palestinian territories and that rules saying the ICC cannot step in if a country is doing its own genuine investigation do not apply for the warrants sought for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel has killed more than 41,200 Palestinians since October last year, the vast majority women and children, and destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, forcing most of the Strip’s more 2.3 million population into a small sliver of land along the coast.
Read: UK fears political unrest of ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu
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