ICC cancels arrest warrant for slain Hamas leader Muhammad Deif

The International Criminal Court scraps an arrest warrant issued against Hamas’s former military chief Muhammad Deif, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year.

The decision by The Hague-based court comes after prosecutors earlier this month told its judges they had “sufficient and reliable information” that Deif was killed last July in Gaza.

“As a result, the Chamber decides to terminate the proceedings against Mr. Deif and renders the arrest warrant… against him without effect,” presiding judge Nicolas Guillou says in a written decision.

Israel announced Deif’s death shortly after the strike, but Hamas did not confirm this until late last month, when the terror group issued a statement announcing his “martyrdom.”

Judge Guillou adds the order is “without prejudice to pursuing again, should information become available that Mr. Deif is still alive.”

Set up in the late 1990s to try those accused of the world’s worst crimes, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Deif in November last year.

At the same time, it also issued warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.