International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday threatened Israel with harsher war crimes scrutiny if it invades Rafah.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, he wrote, "I am deeply concerned by the reported bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in Rafah."
The IDF's position is that it killed only or almost entirely Hamas terrorists during its operation early Monday morning to rescue two hostages, but Khan implied, like many global media reports have, that the IDF may have killed large numbers of Palestinian civilians. No official evidence has been presented to support such claims, but videos have surfaced on social media of children allegedly killed by Israeli airstrikes.
"My Office has an ongoing and active investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine. This is being taken forward as a matter of the utmost urgency, with a view to bringing to justice those responsible for Rome Statute crimes," Khan added.
The rules of war
Further, he stated, "All wars have rules and the laws applicable to armed conflict cannot be interpreted so as to render them hollow or devoid of meaning. This has been my consistent message, including from Ramallah last year. Since that time, I have not seen any discernible change in conduct by Israel."
Though the US has complemented the IDF for changing its tactics at points to reduce collateral civilian harm, Us President Joe Biden has also criticized Israel for not doing enough in that area, and Khan clearly argued that the IDF has not adjusted enough since his warnings during his late November-early December visit to Israel and the West Bank.
"As I have repeatedly emphasized, those who do not comply with the law should not complain later when my Office takes action pursuant to its mandate. To all those involved: my Office is actively investigating any crimes allegedly committed. Those who are in breach of the law will be held accountable," he said in a not-so-veiled threat to both the IDF and Hamas.
Moreover, in addressing some of Hamas's specific ongoing war crimes, he said, "I also continue to call for the immediate release of all hostages. This also represents an important focus of our investigations."
Khan did not address the large amount of evidence Israel has produced of Hamas embedding itself within hospitals, mosques, and schools, or the large apparatus that the IDf has used to evacuate civilians from war zones.\
The IDF maintains that it follows international law to limit collateral harm to civilians, but that Hamas's tactics of using human shields makes some harm to civilians unavoidable.