Karim Khan defends Gaza against war crimes charges against Netanyahu, while ceasefire approval delayed.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has defended the organization's arrest warrants against Israel's prime minister and former defense minister, adding that the country failed to investigate war crimes allegations on its own.
Karim Khan told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that the ICC had not seen "any genuine efforts" by Israel to take "actions consistent with established jurisprudence," adding that he hoped the situation could change.
In November last year, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yove Galante for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel's war in Gaza.
An Israeli investigation could result in the case being returned to an Israeli court under the so-called complementarity principle. Khan said Israel could still show a willingness to investigate even after issuing an arrest warrant.
That seems unlikely because Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based International Criminal Court, denying war crimes despite its apparent failure to investigate the allegations.
Israel's main ally, the United States, is also not a member of the ICC. Last week, the US Congress voted to sanction the court in protest of the arrest warrant, a move Khan called "unpopular and unpopular".
Khan said Israel has very good legal expertise but is not using its judges, prosecutors and legal instruments to "properly scrutinize the allegations we are seeing in the occupied Palestinian territories."
Khan's remarks came a day after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 460 days of war.
Hard-liners in Netanyahu's government say the war has not yet achieved its goal of wiping out Hamas, and under pressure from Netanyahu he postponed key meetings of his security cabinet and cabinet that had been scheduled for Thursday. The agreement goes to a vote.
Netanyahu's office said on Friday that ratification was imminent, with the security cabinet voting on the ceasefire that day, paving the way for final approval by government ministers at a plenary meeting of the cabinet.
However, the Times of Israel reported that a second meeting will be held on Saturday night, with full approval required after a mandatory 24-hour opposition grace period, raising the possibility that the ceasefire will not take effect on Sunday. As originally planned.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Party, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu has no way to prevent the implementation of the ceasefire.
"He maneuvered and tried to delay it and delay it because his main goal was to keep the government together. But now it's clear he can't maneuver anymore," he said.