August 6th is the deadline for more than 60 governments and other parties to file arguments disputing the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction to request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders on both sides of the Gaza war.

ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and military chief Mohammed Al-Masri bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

8 states, including the United States, Germany and South Africa along with 40 organisations and individuals must file written submissions by Tuesday.

The U.S. signed the court’s founding treaty, but did not ratify it, along with Egypt, Iran, Israel, Russia, Sudan, and Syria, meaning they are all non-members of the ICC.

Around another 40 countries have never signed it, including, China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Ukraine.

The UK has reversed a decision by the previous Conservative government to oppose the ICC seeing an arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

These submissions will likely delay any decision by the court’s judges on whether to grant the Prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants, by several months.

Observations will be published as they are filed up until the Aug 6th.

Aljazeera.