ICC discussions on Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants will be open to public
Yuval Yoaz is the legal analyst at Zman Israel, The Times of Israel's sister Hebrew website. He practices law, specializing in public, constitutional and media laws. He is a partner in the law office of Karniel & Co Yoaz-Bareket-Jonas.
The International Criminal Court has decided to make public the discussions ahead of the decision on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The judges order prosecutor Karim Khan to file a motion to classify his request for the issuance of arrest warrants as a public document, or to resubmit the document with requested blackouts.
The disclosure of the evidence submitted by Khan may shed light on the extent of the investigative work done by his office in the months since the October 7 attack on the impact of the war on the Israeli population and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
This decision was given Friday by the pre-trial panel of the court.
The pre-trial stage allows a number of interested parties to submit arguments in the next two weeks regarding the jurisdiction of the ICC in matters concerning Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Khan has said that the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are for the crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
Khan also applied for arrest warrants against Sinwar, Hamas’s ruler in Gaza; the terror group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif; and the leader of the organization, Ismail Haniyeh on charges of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault
Deif and Haniyeh have since been killed.
