Amal Clooney assisted ICC in seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

British-Lebanese human rights lawyer Amal Clooney announced on Monday that she assisted the International Criminal Court (ICC) in evaluating evidence that led to the decision to issue arrest warrants for senior leaders in Israel and Hamas.

In her statement published on the website of the "Clooney Foundation for Justice," which she founded with her husband, American actor George Clooney, Amal Clooney stated that Prosecutor Karim Khan requested her to join an expert committee "to evaluate evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza."

The statement came on the same day Khan announced that he is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges including "starvation," "premeditated murder," and "genocide and/or killing."

Clooney added, "Despite our diverse personal backgrounds, the legal conclusions we reached were unanimous," noting "reasonable grounds to believe" that Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas are involved in "hostage-taking, killings, and acts of sexual violence."

Regarding Netanyahu and Gallant, she also stated there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that both are involved in using "starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution, and genocide."

Khan had expressed his gratitude to attorney Clooney in his statement announcing the request for arrest warrants.

Additionally, Clooney, along with other members of the expert committee, published an article on Monday in the Financial Times supporting the ICC's prosecutions regarding war crimes in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Clooney clarified in her statement "My approach is not to provide ongoing commentary on my work, but to let the work speak for itself."

She affirmed, "I worked on this committee because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives."

She added, "The law that protects civilians during war was developed over 100 years ago and applies to every country in the world regardless of the reasons for the conflicts."

AFP