The International Criminal Court announced on Friday that it will change, for health reasons, one of the judges who will rule on a request by prosecutors to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a move that may lead to further postponement of the case.
Prosecutors in May requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), saying there were reasonable grounds to suggest they had all committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The president of the court said that the chief judge in that case, Romanian judge Yulia Mutuc, requested that a replacement be chosen for health reasons on Friday, and she was immediately replaced by Betty Holler, a Slovenian judge in the court.
It is expected that this replacement will lead to further delay in issuing a decision regarding the issuance of possible arrest warrants in the case dealing with the war in the Gaza Strip, as the new judge will need time to review all the case documents.
Last August, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, asked the judges to urgently decide on the arrest orders, and said, “Any unjustified delay in these procedures negatively affects the rights of the victims,” and stressed that the court has jurisdiction over Israelis who commit brutal crimes. In the Palestinian territories, the court’s judges were asked to reject appeals submitted by dozens of governments and other parties.
Khan said in his request to the court, “It is legally established that the court has jurisdiction in this situation,” rejecting the legal arguments based on provisions in the Oslo Accords and Israel’s assurances that it is conducting investigations into alleged war crimes.
ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.