JERUSALEM: Israel submitted on Friday formal challenges to the International Criminal Court over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests against Israeli leaders for their conduct of the Gaza war, the Foreign Ministry said.
Israel’s filings might further delay a decision on the warrants, requested in May against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan last month urged judges to rule on the warrants, sought also against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and others in the Palestinian militant group.
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.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed around 1,200 people with some 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli counts. More than 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed in an Israeli assault on Hamas in Gaza that has caused a humanitarian crisis.
Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed allegations of war crimes, and representatives for both sides have criticized Khan’s decision to seek warrants for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel says submits challenge to ICC arrest warrant request for Netanyahu
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Israel says submits challenge to ICC arrest warrant request for Netanyahu
UN-sanctioned migrant smuggler killed in western Libya
- In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers
CAIRO: A notorious militia leader in Libya, sanctioned by the UN for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean Sea, was killed on Friday in a raid by security forces in the west of the country, according to Libyan authorities.
Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by Al-Dabbashi’s militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya’s western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas Al-Dabbashi,” in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh Al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the UN report said that there was enough evidence that Al-Dabbashi’s militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances” on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
