The International Criminal Court (ICC) judges have issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister as well as Hamas’s military commander.
A statement revealed a pre-trial chamber had rejected Israel’s challenges to the court’s jurisdiction and issued warrants for both Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
A warrant was also issued for Mohammed Deif, although the Israeli military had reported that he was killed in an air strike in Gaza in July.
The judges had further said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas but both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations.
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister’s office had criticised the ICC’s decision, calling it “antisemitic”, while Hamas said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant set an “important historical precedent”.
Now, it will depend on the ICC’s 124 member states – excluding Israel and its ally, the United States – to decide on whether or not to enforce the warrants.
Back in May, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have now been killed – Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.
Although Israel believes Deif is deceased, the chamber said it had been notified by the ICC prosecution that it was not in a position to determine whether he was killed or remained alive.
The prosecutor’s case against the accused stems from the events of 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.
Israel responded to the attack by orchestrating a military campaign to eliminate Hamas, during which about 44,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
According to the ICC, the chamber “found reasonable grounds to believe” that Deif was “responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape and other form of sexual violence”.
The chamber also said there were reasonable grounds to believe the crimes against humanity were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed by Hamas and other armed groups against the civilian population of Israel”.
For Gallant, who was replaced as defence minister earlier this month and Netanyahu, the chamber “found reasonable grounds to believe” that they “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
The chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.
In reaction to this development, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the chamber’s decision “outrageous”, adding that the ICC had “turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock”.
“The decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,” he claimed.
On the other hand, Hamas welcomed the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying that it “constitutes an important historical precedent, and a correction to a long path of historical injustice against our people”.
Note that Israel has forcefully denied the claims that its forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
