DOHA — Qatar has met with the president of the International Criminal Court as it seeks legal action against Israel over its unprecedented strike against Hamas leaders on its territory last week, an official said on Thursday.
The emirate’s chief negotiator, Mohammed al-Khulaifi, met in The Hague on Wednesday with the president of the ICC, Judge Tomoko Akane, as it pursues “every available legal and diplomatic avenue to ensure accountability for those responsible for Israel’s attack on Qatar,” the Qatari official told AFP.
Last week’s deadly Israeli strike targeted Qatar-based leaders of the Hamas terror group, and sent shock waves through Gulf states that have long depended on the United States for their security.
The strike targeted top Hamas leadership as they met to discuss efforts for a hostage and ceasefire deal between the group and Israel.
Hamas has said that top officials of its political bureau survived the strike but that five members were killed, along with an officer of Qatar’s internal security force.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, the official called Israel’s attack “unlawful,” adding that it “constitutes grave violations of international humanitarian law.”
Qatar, as an observer state at the ICC, cannot itself refer cases to the court.
But after emergency talks in Doha, the Arab and Islamic blocs called on their members Monday to take “all possible legal and effective measures to prevent Israel from continuing its actions.”
In a post on X after his meeting with the ICC chief, Khulaifi said his visit had been “part of the work of the team tasked with exploring legal avenues to respond to the illegal Israeli armed attack against the State of Qatar.”
Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, including by intentionally targeting civilians and using starvation as a method of war.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The ICC also issued arrest warrants for a number of Hamas leaders who have since been killed by Israel.
The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 465. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.