Amal Clooney advised the ICC on arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leaders

Human rights attorney Amal Clooney, wife of actor George Clooney, advised the International Criminal Court on seeking the arrest warrants for Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli officials as well as Hamas leaders such as Gaza Yahya Sinwar.

ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan had convened a panel of international law experts, including Clooney, to advise the court.

"I served on this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives. The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict. As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s," Clooney said in a statement.

"I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine," she added.

Clooney published the panel's final report on Monday, the same day Khan announced that the arrest warrant applications were being filed. She also wrote an op-ed with other panelists that was published Monday by the Financial Times.

The International Criminal Court is moving forward with arrest warrants for Hamas leader in as well, according to the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

ICC judges are now going to consider Khan’s formal applications for the arrest warrants.

These actions mark the first time the ICC has targeted an ally of the United States with arrest warrants.