THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday announced the termination of proceedings against late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after his death in July.
The ICC is currently weighing an application seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders made earlier this year.
In May ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Hamas leaders, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed Al-Masri and Haniyeh, had allegedly committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In the same statement, the prosecutor also sought arrest warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant. There have been no further developments on those requests.
Haniyeh was killed in Iran on July 31. Israel has also said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in another airstrike, although Hamas did not confirm or deny that.
Judges said their decision to terminate proceedings followed the withdrawal of the prosecution request for a warrant for Ismail Haniyeh.
