ICC allows UK to submit arguments disputing the prosecution of Israelis in Gaza case
Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled on Thursday that the UK can submit legal arguments to judges reflecting on the prosecution’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
According to Court documents made public, the UK, an ICC member state, filed a request earlier in June to provide written information on whether “the court can exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals [under] the Oslo Accords”, referring to the 1993 agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
The UK argues that Palestinian authorities cannot have jurisdiction over Israeli nationals under the accords, and therefore cannot transfer that jurisdiction over to the ICC to prosecute them.
Other interested parties may submit their requests on the issue before 12 July.
Granting the UK’s request could delay the judges’s pending decision on arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Reuters reports.
In Gaza, two Israeli strikes on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza killed four people, including a woman and a child, the Wafa news agency reports.
The attacks come after last night’s Israeli strike on a Civil Defence team in their workplace in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, killing three members and injuring others.
An Israeli soldier was also killed on Thursday, according to the Israeli army. The military says he is the 316th soldier killed in the war and that he died fighting in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, the US’s controversial $230m Gaza pier could be removed as soon as today due to difficult sea conditions, according to the AP.
Two US officials told the agency their country will look for other ways to get aid into Gaza.
This would mark the third time the pier is removed due to weather disruptions.
The UN and other aid organisations have paused humanitarian aid distributions from the pier, waiting for a security review following claims it may have played a role in the Israeli military’s Nuseirat massacre, which saw four Israeli hostages rescued but over 270 Palestinians killed on 8 June.