The ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan of Britain, announced Monday that he had asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

On the Hamas side, arrest warrants were sought for the militant group's leader Ismail Haniyeh, its Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and the head of its armed wing, Mohammed Deif, also known as al-Masri.

The five are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a statement issued by Khan in The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is based.

As an additional safeguard, Khan said he sought advice from a panel of international law experts, an independent group he assembled to assist in reviewing the evidence and legal analysis in the case.

"Over four months ago, I was asked by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to assist him in assessing the evidence of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories," Amal Clooney said.

The human rights lawyer, who has represented victims of mass atrocities in other international tribunals, said she joined a group of international legal experts to advise Khan after receiving the invitation.

"Together, we embarked on an exhaustive process of reviewing evidence and conducting legal analysis," she said.

Clooney said the law protecting civilians in war "was developed over 100 years ago and applies equally to every country in the world, no matter what the reasons for the conflict may be."

The eight-member legal panel included prominent international law experts, including Theodor Meron, a former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Clooney said the panel unanimously concluded that Hamas leaders Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh "committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including hostage-taking, murder and the crime of sexual violence."

"We also concluded unanimously that there are reasonable grounds to believe" that Netanyahu and Gallant "committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including intentionally causing widespread and long-term suffering by means of starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination," she added.

The ICC prosecutor has been investigating alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2021, focusing on actions by the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups since 2014.

The investigation includes Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel in May 2021 and the subsequent 11-day Israeli-Palestinian war in the Gaza Strip.

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