The Hague, October 31 (RHC)-- The International Criminal Court is considering prosecuting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes over the relentless aggression against Gaza, killing more than 8,000 Palestinians over more than three weeks.  The court in The Hague investigates and prosecutes people for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.  

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki met with chief prosecutor Karim Khan twice during a two-day visit to the Netherlands to drum up international support for an ICC investigation.

The international court launched an investigation in 2021 into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, focusing on military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the expansion of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Israel argues the ICC has no jurisdiction in the conflict because Palestine is not an independent sovereign state. Israel isn’t a party to the treaty that underpins the international court and is not one of its 123 member states.

After his visit to court, al-Maliki said Israel was waging a war of revenge on Gaza that has violated international law. “It has no real objective other than the total destruction of every livable place in Gaza,” he said.

While in The Hague, the Palestinian delegation also made submissions to the International Court of Justice, which is considering the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution asking the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the situation last year. Hearings in those proceedings were scheduled for February 2024... but will now be moved up due to the current situation.   

In more than three weeks of aggressions, more than 8,000 people have been killed and at least 20,000 injured.