By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court will urgently continue its investigation into crimes committed in Palestinian territories, or by Palestinians, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, despite the withdrawal of an arrest warrant for a Hamas leader.
The ICC said on Wednesday that judges had withdrawn an arrest warrant for Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death.
Deif had been wanted for atrocities committed during Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities that triggered the war in Gaza. He had been accused by prosecutors of mass killing, rape and hostage taking.
He was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year, but militant group Hamas only confirmed his death in late January.
On Thursday, the prosecutor’s office said the probe continued and it would not hesitate to seek arrest warrants for other suspects “if and when it considers that the threshold of a realistic prospect of conviction has been met”.
“Addressing the situation as an urgent priority, the office is conducting an active investigation, and advances multiple and interconnected additional lines of inquiry,” it said in an e-mail.
In November, judges at the ICC also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.
The Israeli leader dismissed the decision as anti-Semitic and said the accusations were absurd and false.
The withdrawal of the warrant for Deif means there are now no public ICC arrest warrants for any Palestinian militants connected to the October 7 attacks.
The decision to drop the case against Deif showed that more action was needed “to end impunity for atrocities still being committed by perpetrators from fundamentalist groups,” said lawyer Yael Vias Gvirsman, who represents Israeli victims at the ICC.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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