Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital after the latest Israeli attack on the facility, April 1, 2024. Photo: Reuters.
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors have held meetings with the staff of Gaza’s two largest hospitals, Al-Shifa Hospital in the north of the Gaza strip and Al-Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Two unnamed sources told Reuters on 29 April that ICC prosecutors have listened to the testimonies of several staff members of the two hospitals—both of which have been stormed by the Israeli army since the start of the war in October.
One source said that the Israeli army’s operations in and around both hospitals could become part of an ICC investigation. The sources refused to provide further details, and the ICC prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the operational aspect of the probe, citing concerns over the safety of witnesses and victims.
The ICC has said it is investigating “both sides of the conflict.”
In November 2023, Al-Shifa Hospital was invaded by the Israeli army, who ejected its staff at gunpoint and turned the facility into a detention center. The hospital was attacked again on March 18 this year, and hundreds were killed in a subsequent two-week Israeli operation inside and around the medical center.
Khan Yunis’ Al-Nasser hospital was also stormed by Israeli troops in February 2024. Several people were killed, including patients.
Palestinian rescue workers demanded urgent probes and international intervention following the discovery in April of hundreds of bodies—many unidentifiable—buried in mass graves near the two hospitals.
Some of the bodies found showed signs of torture and execution. Other bodies had missing organs. Among the corpses found at the mass graves were those of children and elderly people.
The investigations come after reports earlier in April claimed that the ICC was looking to issue arrest warrants against top Israeli government officials—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu is reportedly in a state of extreme anxiety over the matter. According to Hebrew media reports, Washington is involved in an effort to block the ICC from issuing the warrants.
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has threatened the ICC with “retaliation” if international arrest warrants are issued against senior Israeli officials for war crimes committed in Gaza.
“Legislation to that effect is already in the works,” US officials told Axios on April 29.
