ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Israel PM Netanyahu Over War Crimes In Gaza (image-X/netanyahu)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is pursuing an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Arrest warrants for Israeli defence minister Yaov Gallant and three Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh have also been sought.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the court, released a statement outlining the charges against the leaders and added that the evidence in support to the crimes have been collected by his office.
On War Crimes By Netanyahu And Gallant
The statement read, “On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023”
The charges raised against Netanyahu and Gallant include starvation of civilians as method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, persecution, extermination and/or murder, and other inhumane acts.
The statement added, “the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.”
Khan further added that acts such as cutting off cross-border water pipelines from Israel to Gaza, their principal source of clean water, and cutting off and obstructing electricity supplies from at least October 8 last year until today, while parallelly attacking civilians queuing for food, “obstruction of aid delivery by humanitarian agencies, and attacks on and killing of aid workers, which forced many agencies to cease or limit their operations in Gaza,” were done “intentionally and systematically.”
The statement also observed the use of starvation as a method of warfare combined with other attacks as “collective punishment” against the civilians of Gaza.
On War Crimes By Hamas Leaders
“On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Yahya SINWAR (Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) in the Gaza Strip), Mohammed Diab Ibrahim AL-MASRI, more commonly known as DEIF (Commander-in-Chief of the military wing of Hamas, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades), and Ismail HANIYEH (Head of Hamas Political Bureau) bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 7 October 2023,” read the statement.
The charges raised against the Hamas leaders include extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape and other acts of sexual violence, torture, outrages upon personal dignity, and other inhumane acts.
The statement added that the crimes against humanity were part of a “widespread and systematic attack” against Israel’s civilian population by Hamas and other armed groups. It also observed that some of these crimes “continue to this day.”
A panel of judges of ICC will consider Khan’s application. Should they grant his application and issue the arrest warrants, Khan “will then work closely with the Registrar in all efforts to apprehend the named individuals.”
A case of genocide has also been filed against Israel by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court had told Israel to abide by the Geneva convention in its interim order in January, however after observing no change in Israel’s actions, the court issued fresh orders to Israel to cooperate with the United Nations and “the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza.”
