A FORMER US prosecutor who helped build the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) war crimes cases involving Israeli and Hamas leaders has defended Karim Khan’s handling of the Palestine investigation, pushing back against claims that the warrant applications were rushed.
Brenda Hollis, who led the ICC team that prepared the case, said the applications for arrest warrants were the result of months of investigation and review, and should not be linked to the controversy surrounding Khan’s removal from office.
Khan was removed by the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) last Friday. But Hollis said his departure should be considered separately from the Palestine case.
“Regardless of how you assess the removal of Karim, it should not be allowed to be conflated with the requests for arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli leaders,” she said in a LinkedIn post.
Hollis said the applications were prepared based on evidence collected by the ICC team and went through the court’s legal review process before being submitted.
“The requests for arrest warrants were not hurried, last-minute submissions,” she said.
“They were the result of ongoing investigations, based on law and sufficient credible evidence, and finalised after thorough internal and external review.”
She said she was directly involved in the process, having overseen the team responsible for gathering and analysing evidence under the ICC’s legal framework.
Hollis said she had personally recommended that Khan submit the warrant applications to ICC judges after assessing the evidence and legal basis of the case.
The ICC later issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the Gaza conflict since October 2023.
Beyond the Palestine investigation, Hollis also defended Khan’s leadership at the prosecutor’s office, saying he had improved coordination between investigators, analysts and prosecutors.
She said Khan had brought different teams together under a more unified structure and created a stronger sense of urgency within the office.
Her comments come as the ICC continues to face criticism over its handling of the Gaza investigation, with supporters saying the court was acting within its mandate while Israel has rejected the proceedings and questioned the timing of the warrant requests.
Meanwhile, claims had also surfaced that US Senator Lindsey Graham and Netanyahu conspired to use sexual misconduct allegations against the ICC chief prosecutor to try to delay the court's arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
The conversation was reported by the New York Times and was in recordings taken by British filmmaker Alex Holder, who followed Graham around for three years for a documentary on his relationship with US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu.
The phone call reportedly took place on 29 October 2024, just weeks before ICC judges announced they were issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The recordings revealed that Netanyahu sought bipartisan US support from the Republican and Democratic Parties to protest the ICC's detention order against him.
The Israeli Zionist regime leader suggested that they capitalise on the alleged sexual harassment by ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to "tarnish" the institution. – July 30, 2026
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