The International Criminal Court on Thursday charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister and Hamas officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war and Israel’s offensive in Palestine. An arrest warrant was issued for the crime. region.
The decision is likely to make Netanyahu and others internationally wanted suspects, further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month conflict. But its practical impact may be limited because Israel and its main ally the United States are not members of the tribunal, and several Hamas leaders have since been killed in the conflict.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for a warrant as disgraceful and anti-Semitic. US President Joe Biden also condemned the prosecutors and expressed support for Israel’s right to protect itself from Hamas. Hamas also condemned the request.
“The Chamber of Commerce has reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived civilians in Gaza of essential items for survival, including food, water, medicine, medical supplies, and even fuel and electricity. I thought about it,” he said. The three-judge panel wrote that it had unanimously decided to issue warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, one of Hamas’ leaders. The ICC chief prosecutor had also sought warrants for two other Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, both of whom died in the conflict.
In September, Israel’s Foreign Ministry filed two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and arguing that the court did not provide Israel with an opportunity to investigate the allegations themselves before requesting a warrant. Announced.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like the one that exists in Israel has been treated so poorly by prosecutors,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said. Writing about X, he said Israel “remains steadfast in its commitment to the rules.” He will continue to protect the people from extremists by advocating “law and justice.”
The ICC is the court of last resort, prosecuting cases only when national law enforcement authorities are unable or unwilling to investigate. Israel is not a member state of the court. Human rights groups say the country has struggled to carry out investigations.
Despite the warrant, it is unlikely that either suspect will appear before a judge in The Hague anytime soon. The court itself has no police force to execute warrants, relying instead on the cooperation of member states.
Still, the threat of arrest could make it difficult for Netanyahu and Gallant to travel abroad, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, has recently traveled. He was sent to Mongolia, one of the Tribunal member states, who had indicated the possibility of visiting the Allies, but was not arrested.
Khan filed a warrant in May accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of murder, intentional attacks on civilians and persecution.
Khan said in a statement at the time that Israel was closing border crossings into the Gaza Strip and restricting essential goods such as food and medicine, “destroying goods intended for human survival from civilians across the Gaza Strip.” “It was stolen in a targeted and systematic manner.”
At the same time, he charged three Hamas leaders with crimes related to the October 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting another 250. He blamed Shinwar, Daif and Haniya. The leaders have been accused of murder, extermination, hostage-taking, rape, and torture.
“The Chamber believes that Mr. Deif, born in 1965, who was the supreme commander of Hamas’s military wing (known as the al-Qassam Brigades) at the time of the alleged acts, is a reasonable person to believe that he is responsible for crimes against humanity. It found grounds for: murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as acts of inhumanity against the dignity of the person, and other forms of sexual violence.
Prosecutors dropped a warrant request against Haniyeh, who was assassinated in July in an apparent Israeli attack on Iran. Israel also claims to have killed Deif, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. Sinwar, who replaced Haniya as leader of Hamas, was killed in a chance encounter with Israeli forces on the front line in October.
Human rights groups have praised the decision, which came more than six months after Khan first made the request.
“The ICC’s arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials shatter the perception that certain individuals are above the law,” Human Rights Watch deputy international justice director Balqis Jarrah said in a statement.
Israeli opposition leaders sharply criticized the ICC’s move.
Netanyahu’s political rival, retired general Benny Gantz, called the decision a display of “moral blindness” and a “shameful stain on history that will never be forgotten.”
Fellow opposition leader Yair Lapid called it a “prize of terrorism.”
