WASHINGTON: British-Lebanese barrister and human rights activist, Amal Clooney has assisted the International Criminal Court weigh evidence that ultimately led to the decision to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders.
She posted a statement on Monday on the website of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she established with her husband, American actor George Clooney.
Both she and the foundation had earlier been criticized on social media for not speaking about the civilian deaths in Gaza.
Clooney said she was asked by prosecutor Karim Khan to become part of an expert panel to assess evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Khan said he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top leaders of Hamas.
Clooney said despite diverse personal backgrounds, their legal findings were unanimous.
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She said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant, have used starvation as a method of warfare, persecution, murder, and extermination.
Khan in his statement thanked Clooney announcing the decision to seek the arrest warrants.
As Israel, the United States, and Hamas, denounced the move, the experts said that they agreed unanimously that the prosecutor’s work was fair, rigorous, and based on the law and the facts.
Clooney, in her statement, said that her approach was not to provide a running commentary of her work but to let the work speak for itself.
“I served on this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives,” she added.
She said the law that protects civilians in war was made more than 100 years ago and it applies in every nation in the world irrespective of the reasons for a conflict.
