The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has been warned that if arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be “destroyed”, the Middle East Eye (MEE) reports.
The warning was delivered in May to Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court linked to a Netanyahu adviser who said the Israeli leader’s legal adviser told him he was “authorised” to make Khan a proposal that would allow Khan to “climb down the tree”, the news website said.
According to a note of the meeting on file at the ICC and seen by MEE, Kaufman told Khan to apply to the court to reclassify the warrants and underlying information as “confidential”.
This, it was suggested, would allow Israel to access the details of the allegations, which it could not do at the time, and challenge them in private – without the outcome being made public.
Kaufman warned Khan that if it emerged Khan was applying for more arrest warrants for far-right Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over their promotion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, then “all options would be off the table.”
Kaufman told Khan: “They will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif in November on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent genocidal war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed dead.
Since then, the Israeli defendants are internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under legal obligation to arrest them although several have been wary to agree to it.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, hit out this month against countries that have allowed Netanyahu to fly over their airspace en route to the United States, suggesting that they may have flouted their obligations under international law.
Albanese said the governments of Italy, France and Greece needed to explain why they provided “safe passage” to Netanyahu, who they were theoretically “obligated to arrest” as an internationally wanted suspect when he flew over their territory on his way to meet US President Donald Trump for talks.
All three countries are signatories of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established The Hague-based ICC in 2002.
Kaufman told MEE: “I do not deny that I told Mr Khan that he should be looking for a way to extricate himself from his errors. I am not authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government nor did I.”
Khan and his wife, Dato Shyamala Alagendra, who also attended the meeting with Kaufman, both confirmed this to be a threat, according to the note of the meeting seen by MEE.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment from MEE.
At the time of the meeting, Khan was facing investigation over sexual misconduct claims. Two weeks later, Khan stepped down on indefinite leave after the publication by The Wall Street Journal of new allegations of sexual assault.
Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.
MEE revealed details of Khan’s meeting with Kaufman on May 1 at a hotel in The Hague.
ICE is more well-funded than most of the world’s militaries, thanks to Trump’s new budget. This expert says pouring money into detentions and deportations could ‘change the fabric of American society forever’.
Heatwaves in Europe have arrived unexpectedly early this year with two major spikes in temperatures already affecting millions of people and a third gripping parts of the continent.
From late June to mid-July, temperatures soared as high as 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) with some locations in Western Europe experiencing record-breaking heat.
Wildfires in Greece have triggered evacuations while in France, emergency measures have closed schools and even the Eiffel Tower. In Italy, bans on outdoor labour have affected many workers.
Spain’s environment ministry said high temperatures have caused 1,180 deaths in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year.
According to a study, about 2,300 heat-related deaths were recorded in 12 European cities from June 23 to July 2. About 1,500 of those deaths were linked to climate change, according to the researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“Climate change has made it significantly hotter than it would have been, which in turn makes it a lot more dangerous,” Dr Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London, said.
Where have heatwaves occurred?
The first heatwave Europe experienced peaked between June 17 and 22 and affected Western and Southern Europe.
During the second heatwave, peaking between June 30 and July 2, temperatures exceeded 40C (104F) in several countries with some cities in Spain and Portugal reaching 46C (118F).
What is causing the heatwaves?
The persistent heat is being driven by a high-pressure system over Western Europe known as a heat dome.
It acts like a lid that traps hot air under it. The pressure from the weather system pushes air down into a hot, dome-shaped mass and prevents milder weather systems from moving through.
As a result, it creates prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures.
The heat in turn prevents clouds from building up, reducing the chances of rain.
This June was the warmest on record for Western Europe
Due to the weather phenomenon, Western Europe saw its warmest June on record with an average temperature of 20.49C (68.88F), surpassing the previous record for the month from 2003 by 0.06C (0.11F), according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
On June 30, temperatures averaged 24.9C (76.8F) over Western Europe, setting a new daily temperature record for June. The same average temperature was recorded on July 1.
That was one of the highest daily temperatures ever observed in Europe during this time of year. It was exceeded only during the heatwaves of 2003, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Europe is the fastest warming continent and has warmed by 0.53C (0.95F) per decade since the mid-1990s, according to the ERA5 dataset from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Several factors are causing this effect in Europe, including shifts in atmospheric circulation, leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves. Additionally, reduced air pollution means that more solar radiation is reaching the Earth’s surface and reducing cloud cover. Certain areas of Europe also extend into the Arctic, which is the fastest warming region on the planet.
Countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal saw the hottest temperatures recorded since 1979 from the start of the first heatwave to the end of the second heatwave – June 17 to July 2.
Heatwaves have been deadly for Europe.
A report by Imperial’s Grantham Institute published last week studied 12 European cities to measure changes in the intensity of heatwaves.
From June 23 to July 2 it estimated there were 2,300 heat-related deaths, including 1,500 linked to climate change, which made the heatwaves more severe.
Climate change was behind:
317 of the estimated excess heat deaths in Milan
286 in Barcelona
235 in Paris
171 in London
164 in Rome
108 in Madrid
96 in Athens
47 in Budapest
31 in Zagreb
21 in Frankfurt
21 in Lisbon
six in Sassari, Italy
(Al Jazeera)
The study found that the heatwaves were more deadly due to the early arrival of higher temperatures, which usually occur in late July and in August.
People in Europe are not acclimatised to such high temperatures, especially the older population. More than 80 percent of the estimated excess deaths are expected in people older than 65.
The world is getting hotter
Last month was the third warmest June globally since 1850, according to average temperatures. June’s average surface air temperature was 16.46C (61.62F) to 0.47C (0.84F) and higher than the 1991-2020 average for June, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Global temperatures remain unusually high, closely tracking 2024 – the hottest year on record, having averaged a surface air temperature of 15.1C (59.18F), which was more than 1.5C (2.7F) higher than pre-industrial levels, a threshold seen as crucial to avoid dangerous global warming.
An article published last month in the Earth System Science Data journal also noted that human-induced warming has been increasing at a rate of 0.27C per decade from 2015 to 2024, which is the highest rate observed in the instrumental record.
Israel’s war on Gaza has wiped out cropland and trees, creating food shortages and exacerbating environmental degradation and climate change.
The Destruction of Gaza’s Cropland is part of a series called Climate & War, commissioned by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), which tells personal stories to reveal how war exacerbates climate change.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called China’s open-source artificial intelligence a “catalyst for global progress” and says it is “revolutionising” supply chains.
In a speech during Wednesday’s opening ceremony of the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Huang – whose firm last week became the first to touch $4 trillion in market value – hailed China’s role in pioneering AI, describing Chinese AI startup DeepSeek as “giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution”.
Huang made the comments a day after Nvidia announced it will resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China after the United States government pledged to remove licensing restrictions that had halted exports.
“AI is transforming every industry from scientific research and healthcare to energy, transportation and logistics,” said Huang, who also praised China’s “super-fast” innovation, powered by its “researchers, developers and entrepreneurs”.
The California-based company produces some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors but cannot ship its most cutting-edge chips to China due to Washington’s concerns that Beijing could use them to enhance its military capabilities.
Nvidia developed the H20 – a less powerful version of its AI processing units – specifically for export to China. However, that plan stalled when US President Donald Trump’s administration tightened export licensing requirements in April.
“Huang says he’s now free to sell to the Chinese market thanks to negotiations with China on trade,” Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu said, reporting from Beijing. “The Trump administration has confirmed that in exchange for rare earths, it will allow the chip to now be sold into China.”
“The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it was “filing applications to sell the Nvidia H20 GPU again”.
Nvidia has also announced it is developing a new chip for Chinese clients called the RTX Pro GPU, which would also be compliant with US export restrictions.
The announcement from Nvidia boosted tech firm stocks around the world with Wall Street’s Nasdaq Composite index rising to another record high and stocks in Hong Kong also rallying.
The tightened US export curbs were imposed as China’s economy wavers. Domestic consumers are reluctant to spend, and a prolonged property sector crisis is weighing on growth.
President Xi Jinping has called for greater self-reliance in the face of increasing external uncertainty.
Israel has struck the headquarters of the Syrian military in Damascus, compounding a volatile situation on the ground and following through on its threats over clashes between Syrian government troops and Druze fighters in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Wednesday that the Israeli military had struck the entrance of the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus.
The strikes came hours after Katz’s threat to the Syrian government to withdraw from Suwayda, where they have been engaged in fierce clashes in recent days with fighters from Syria’s Druze minority, whom Israel views as a potential ally in Syria and claims to be intervening to protect.
Fierce fighting has resumed in the southern city, a major centre for the Druze community, since a ceasefire announced by the Syrian government on Tuesday swiftly collapsed.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid said that he had witnessed two drone attacks on the headquarters of the Syrian Defence Ministry, one in front at the entrance to the building, and the other near the back. Drones were continuing to circulate overhead and bursts of gunfire had been heard, apparently from Syrian defensive positions shooting at the drones.
“This goes to show the situation is escalating. Israeli strikes have now reached the heart of Damascus,” he said.
‘Performative escalation for now’
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Rob Geist Pinfold, lecturer in international security at King’s College London, said the latest Israeli strikes appeared to be a “performative escalation for now”.
“They deliberately hit open areas near or in the defence academy in Syria, rather than looking to demolish the structure and cause significant casualties,” he said.
That was different to how Israel had been operating in the Suwayda area, he said, where it has been carrying out punishing strikes on Syrian troop positions who have entered the region amid clashes with Druze fighters.
Geist Pinfold said that Israel’s strikes in Suwayda had began with “performative” actions, before escalating into “attacks against Syrian security forces which have killed unprecedented numbers”.
“This could be the thin end of the wedge here,” he said of the Damascus strikes.
“This is a performative escalation for now but we are very, very close to Israel launching more prolonged, more direct and more dangerous, damaging strikes through Syria.”
Ceasefire collapses
Sectarian violence in Suwayda resumed in full force earlier on Wednesday, despite the announcement of a ceasefire by the Syrian government the previous night, Syria’s Ministry of Defence told Al Jazeera. Ministry officials blamed groups “outside the law” for breaking the ceasefire and attacking government troops, who they said were responding to fire while taking into account rules of engagement to protect civilians.
The ministry told Al Jazeera it had opened safe corridors in the city for civilians to flee the violence.
Speaking from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Bin Javaid said at least 70 people were believed to have been killed in the fighting so far. Medical sources in the city say more than 200 people have been injured in the violence.
Meanwhile the UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory added that at least 21 people were killed in “field executions”.
Israeli air attacks continue
On top of the clashes on the ground, Israel has continued its air raids, with at least seven attacks launched around Suwayda on Wednesday, as well as the strikes on Damascus, Bin Javaid said.
In a threat to Syria prior to launching the strikes on Damascus, Katz said government forces must be withdrawn from Suwayda, or Israel would ramp up its attacks.
“As we have made clear and warned – Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on,” he said.
Syria has condemned Israel’s intervention as a violation of international law, as have several Arab nations. Israel has also been attacking other areas of Syria regularly since longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was deposed in December, claiming it is targeting weapons sites. The Israeli government has dismissed the fledgling Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa as “extremists”.
The United States has revoked its designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) as Washington softens its approach to post-war Syria. The decision earlier this month is part of US President Donald Trump’s broader strategy to re-engage with Syria and support its reconstruction after more than a decade of devastating conflict.
The outbreak of violence in the southern city on Sunday was triggered by a wave of recent kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed groups, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Suwayda, witnesses told the Reuters news agency.
Syria’s Druze population numbers about 700,000, with Suwayda home to the sect’s largest community. Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Suwayda, with violence occasionally erupting.
Bin Javaid said tensions in the latest outbreak of violence had been inflamed by material of killings and abuses posted on social media. “That created a flurry of reaction… from both sides,” he said.
Geist Pinfold told Al Jazeera that the situation in Suwayda had evolved into “an extremely complicated dynamic”.
“What began as an act of petty crime has now degenerated into mass killings with a sectarian dimension, and of course the threat of further Israeli military action looming,” he said.
Since the overthrow of al-Assad, concerns have been raised over the rights and safety of minorities under the new authorities, who have also struggled to re-establish security more broadly.
“Since this government took charge, the Druze have not really accepted them as the government that will look after their aspirations and hopes as well,” said Bin Javaid.
Clashes between government troops and Druze fighters in April and May killed dozens of people, with local leaders and religious figures signing agreements to contain the escalation and better integrate Druze fighters into the new government.
The Druze developed their own militias during the nearly 14-year ruinous civil war. Since al-Assad’s fall, different Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces.
Red Crescent volunteers carry a government soldier injured in Suwayda, Syria, during clashes between government forces and Druze militias on Tuesday [Omar Albam/AP]
Geist Pinfold told Al Jazeera that Israel had been working closely with an influential Druze sheikh, Hikmat al-Hijri, who has been a key player in the escalation of the situation in Suwayda following the initial abduction on Friday.
“It was his forces that took government buildings … within Suwayda and it was then that Israel chose to act to defend him from Syrian security services who are looking to restore order,” said Pinfold.
He said Israel’s attacks on Syrian troops in the south appeared to have inflicted a high number of casualties.
Israel’s response to the situation showed it had not taken the opportunity for a reset with Syria’s new government and to work towards a stabilisation of relations, he added.
