Independent panel advising ICC unanimously agreed on Netanyahu and Gallant war crimes assessment

The International Criminal Court leaned on an independent panel of experts that included Lebanese-British lawyer Amal Clooney to investigate whether there was evidence Israel and Hamas committed war crimes.

“The Panel… unanimously agrees that the evidence presented by the prosecutor provides reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Israel’s minister of defence Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the experts wrote in the Financial Times.

The authors also said the Panel “unanimously agrees” that Hamas’s most senior leaders; Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“The attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the military response by Israeli forces in Gaza have tested the system of international law to its limits,” they said, adding that the case was a “milestone” in the history of International law.

The panel included Lord Justice Fulford, Judge Theodor Meron, Amal Clooney, Danny Friedman and Baroness Helena Kennedy.