War crimes court ends proceedings against late Hamas leader Haniyeh

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Friday it had terminated proceedings against late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh following his death in July.

The ICC is currently weighing a request for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders made earlier this year.

In May ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan asked for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders, saying there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed Al-Masri and Haniyeh, bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In the same statement the prosecutor announced he was also seeking warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant. There has been no word of further developments on those requests.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran on July 31. Israel has also said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in another airstrike, although Hamas would neither confirm or deny that.

Judges said their decision to terminate proceedings followed the withdrawal of the prosecution request for a warrant for Haniyeh earlier this month.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Meijer, Editing by Timothy Heritage)