Israeli Court Awards Hostage Families NIS 25 Million in Lawsuit Against Former ICC Prosecutor

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered Karim Khan, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, to pay NIS 25 million in compensation to former hostage Eitan Mor and the families of captivity survivors Avinatan Or and Omri Miran, Israel Hayom reported Saturday evening.

According to the report, Judge Eran Shilo issued a default judgment after Khan failed to submit a statement of defense, despite having been properly served with the lawsuit. The case was filed in August 2025, while the three Israelis were still being held hostage by Hamas. They were released approximately two months later.

The plaintiffs, represented by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat HaDin legal organization, alleged that Khan's conduct had enabled Hamas to continue holding the hostages captive.

Families Accuse Khan of Delaying Action Against Hamas Leaders

The plaintiffs claimed that Khan waited eight months before seeking arrest warrants against three senior Hamas leaders—Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and Ismail Haniyeh—and linked those requests to arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They further alleged that he failed to seek warrants against leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other senior Hamas officials whom they held responsible for the hostages' continued captivity.

In their lawsuit, the families accused Khan of creating an improper moral equivalence between Israel and terrorist organizations and alleged that his decisions were influenced by improper motives.

Shurat HaDin Plans to Enforce Judgment in Britain

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin, welcomed the ruling as a historic precedent for holding international legal officials personally accountable. "Thanks to the historic judgment we obtained, prosecutors and judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague will now know that if they act unlawfully, they will have to pay out of their own pockets," she said. "Just as the Trump administration has imposed administrative sanctions on them, victims of terrorism will also make them pay for their actions."

Darshan-Leitner said her organization intends to pursue collection of the full NIS 25 million awarded to the plaintiffs. "Khan currently resides in England, and we therefore intend to take action there to enforce the judgment through the mechanisms for recognizing and enforcing foreign court rulings," she explained.

The judgment was issued after Khan failed to respond to the lawsuit, rather than following a contested trial of the allegations. Any attempt to collect the compensation in Britain would require further legal proceedings under the applicable rules for recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments.