The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has reiterated the need for timely action and investigation into the war crimes in Gaza.

“Should I wait until everybody’s dead?” Karim Khan said in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, dismissing claims of hasty decision-making regarding arrest warrants for Israeli politicians and three Hamas leaders.

“If your father, your mother, your grandfather was a hostage, would you really want me to wait? If this was your child or your sister blown to bits, would you want me to wait?” he said, stressing the importance of immediate legal intervention in ongoing conflicts.

“We shouldn’t indulge ourselves into thinking that the suffering of people is something to comment on in the future. The law must be felt in real time. If you are a firefighter, you don’t wait until the house is burned down and the neighborhood is in flames,” he said.

The ICC, established in 2002, investigates and prosecutes individuals for international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

In May, Khan issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant following a months-long investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza genocide.