US pressure could derail ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders

When Israel started relentlessly bombing Gaza, Rasha Abu Shaban packed a handful of belongings and fled south with her parents and siblings.
Her brother stayed behind out of fear that he would never be able to come home again.
Abu Shaban was in a displacement camp in Rafah when she learned that an Israeli missile had struck her home.
“My brother was killed at the beginning of November. He was there with another family that was displaced in our house,” Abu Shaban, 38, told Al Jazeera. “We heard from [our neighbours] that an ambulance was prevented from reaching them.”
Abu Shaban is one of tens of thousands of Palestinians hungry for justice after losing loved ones, property and livelihoods to Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, which began after a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7.
About 1,139 Israelis were killed in that attack, and 250 were taken captive. Since then, Israel has killed more than 35,500 Palestinians in a campaign of violence that UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and other legal experts have described as a genocide.
On May 20, after months of gathering evidence, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar; the head of the movement’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh; and the head of its military wing, Mohammed Deif.
Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of using “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, “extermination”, “willfully causing great suffering” and deliberately “directing attacks against civilians”.
The Hamas leaders are accused of “extermination”, “taking hostages” and “torture”.
Khan’s announcement marks the first time an ICC chief prosecutor has sought to prosecute senior officials from a close ally of the United States, marking a significant moment in the body’s history.
While Khan’s announcement gives Abu Shaban hope that Palestinians may obtain justice someday, she fears that Israel and the US will pressure ICC judges to reject Khan’s requests.
“I have mixed feelings,” she said. “I really worry that the US and Israel will … stop the issuing of the arrests [warrants] from happening.”