Strikes hit Gaza as ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants

CAIRO/JERUSALEM — Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip, residents said, as the International Criminal Court prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.

Israel has been pushing into the city of Rafah, which it says is the last bastion of Hamas forces. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the area that was one of their few remaining places of refuge.

"Across the Gaza Strip, there is no safety," said Majid Omran who told Reuters his family had fled Rafah and just returned to what was left of their home in the southern city of Khan Younis that they fled nearly five months ago.

"We took our children, grandchildren and daughters and we came and lived above the rubble of our home. Because there is no place to take refuge here," Omran said inside the wrecked property as a woman cooked over a fire.

Israeli forces also pushed deeper into the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza overnight and into Sunday, returning to an area that they said they had cleared earlier in the conflict, residents said.

The Israeli military has said its operations in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, are precise and meant to stop Hamas from reestablishing its grip there.

The Israeli military said it was "operating to identify armed terrorist cells and … conducting dozens of strikes to assist the forces operating on the ground" in the Jabalia area.

Political turmoil

On Monday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu, in connection with their actions in the conflict.

Karim Khan said that he believes Netanyahu, his defense minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pretrial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the announcement as a "disaster".

Amid the political turmoil, Sullivan met his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi and Netanyahu in Jerusalem for talks on the brutal Gaza conflict and postwar scenarios.

He briefed Netanyahu on the "potential" of a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia after holding talks in the region, the White House said on Sunday.

Sullivan also called on the Israeli prime minister to link the military operation against Hamas in Gaza with a "political strategy" for the future of the Palestinian enclave, it added.

The Gaza conflict broke out after Hamas' unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally.

At least 35,386 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since that day, according to the enclave's health ministry. Aid agencies have warned of widespread hunger and shortages of fuel and medical supplies.

Agencies Via Xinhua