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Israel's allegations that Hamas members were using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes were "grossly exaggerated", the prosecutor leading the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Palestine investigation said, according to The Guardian.

Speaking at an event last week, Andrew Cayley questioned the credibility of Israeli claims, which have been used by the Israeli army to justify attacks on healthcare facilities around the Strip for over 14 months.

Cayley, who reports to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan, said the court has faced "great difficulty" verifying the level of Hamas presence in Gaza’s medical facilities because of "lies being spoken".

"We need to be able to demonstrate very clearly what the level of military presence was, if at all, in these hospitals because I think we’ve been misled about that in the press," the UK newspaper quoted him as saying.

Cayley, a senior British barrister, was appointed by Khan in March to lead an investigation into Israeli violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The inquiry was opened in 2021 but was accelerated following the launch of Israel's war on Gaza on 7 October.��

In a landmark decision, ICC judges last month approved arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohamed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This came six months after Khan requested the warrants for the Israeli leaders, accusing them of deliberately starving Gaza’s population, exterminating civilians and persecution of the population.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using Gaza’s hospitals as "human shields", justifying its destruction of much of the Strip’s health system��with this pretext. Cayley said the Gaza health sector has "collapsed" due to relentless bombardment and Israel’s restrictions on the entry of emergency medical supplies, food and fuel.

Hospitals destroyed

Around half of the territory’s 35 hospitals have either been destroyed or are completely non-functioning, while the remaining 17 are only partially functioning, according to the latest assessment.

Medical facilities and workers have specific protections under international law unless they are used for military purposes, however Israel has continued to target medical personnel, including members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and doctors.

The ICC plans to investigate Israel’s attacks on health facilities in the coming months and has already interviewed doctors and medical workers who have worked in Gaza during the war, Cayley said.

"Looking at damage to health facilities, destruction of health facilities, we will be coming on to that probably later next year. We’re having to do this in stages simply because of the resources that we have," he said.

Earlier this week, a new Amnesty International probe concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, using evidence, analysis and testimonies to show how Israel carried out��acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

It noted that acts in violation of international laws include��killing, mental or bodily harm and intentionally inflicting Palestinians with conditions that would ensure their destruction.

"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International said in a statement.

Callamard stressed that the group's findings must result in ending the war on the besieged enclave and serve as a wake-up call to the international community.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed 44,835 Palestinians since 7 October 2023 and wounded over 106,356 others in the same time frame. The bombardment of the Strip has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.��