The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has called for the International Criminal Court's ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan's statements to "take effect on the ground". 

Hamas' call came in response to remarks made by Khan in which he said: "To build strong cases we must understand the world in which survivors live, the societal context in which crimes are committed. To do that, we have to be on the ground."

In a press statement Saturday, Hamas' Legal Office reaffirmed the importance of such remarks in the Palestine case, especially as no progress has been made in this regard since March 2021. 

The office demanded that the Palestine case be given the necessary legal importance pursuant to the Rome Statute under which the ICC was established. 

"This Israeli behaviour constitutes a violation of the regulations of the ICC, which serves as a last resort for the victims of systematic terrorism practised by the Israeli occupation army and colonial settler militias, the latest of which was the torching of Palestinian citizens' properties in Turmus Ayya near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank," added the office. 

The Hamas legal office called on the ICC prosecutor to continue legal proceedings to open a "true and effective" investigation in the Palestine case and to "work closely with Palestinian victims who have suffered severe harm as a result of the crimes committed by the fascist Israeli occupation government."