Gaza: Amal Clooney helped global criminal court to weigh evidence

Washington: Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney helped the International Criminal Court to place evidence against top Israeli and Hamas leaders, which led to arrest warrants against them, she said on Monday. She, a high-profile British-Lebanese barrister, informed the public about the same through her website, Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she started with her husband and American actor George Clooney, Agence France-Presse reported.

Earlier, netizens criticized her as well as her foundation on social media for keeping silent over the death toll of civilians in Gaza.

In her statement on the website, Clooney said that she was asked by prosecutor Karim Khan to join an expert panel to evaluate evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

It was on the same day that Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant Clooney posted her statement. Khan had also sought arrest warrants for top Hamas leaders.

She said that despite their diverse personal backgrounds, their legal findings are unanimous. Netanyahu and Gallant were involved in the usage of starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination.

She claimed in her statement that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were involved in hostage-taking, murder and crimes of sexual violence.

When Hamas, Israel and its close ally, the United States, denounced the lawyers’ move, experts opined that they unanimously agreed that Clooney’s work was rigorous, fair and grounded.

Clooney was among others who wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Monday backing ICC prosecuting war crimes in the Gaza conflict.