Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have issued arrest warrants for the trio- Hamas military commander, Israel’s prime minister, and its former defense minister.
According to a statement, a pre-trial chamber issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant and dismissed Israel’s claims to the court’s authority.
Mohammed Deif of Hamas was also the subject of a warrant, despite Israel’s claims that he was killed in a July airstrike in Gaza.
The judges ruled that the three individuals had “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, citing “reasonable grounds.” The accusations have been denied by both Israel and Hamas.
The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant have set a “important historical precedent,” according to Hamas, while the Israeli prime minister’s office denounced the ICC’s ruling as “antisemitic.”
Whether or not the 124 member states of the ICC—which exclude Israel and its principal supporter, the United States—decide to implement these warrants will have an impact.
The US opposed the ICC ruling, the White House stated in a statement.
The head of EU foreign policy, however, stated that it need to be adhered to and put into practice.
The events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen assaulted southern Israel, murdering over 1,200 people and capturing 251 more, are the basis for the prosecutor’s case against them.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 44,000 people have died as a result of Israel’s military operation to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the strike.
For Deif, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that he 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”.
It 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 Netanyahu and Gallant, who was replaced as defence minister earlier this month, 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”.
It 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”.
Since 2002, the ICC has been a component of the international justice system. On the territory of nations parties to the Rome Statute, its founding treaty, it has the power to bring charges against individuals suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
The ICC decided in 2021 that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza since the UN secretary general had acknowledged that the Palestinians were a member, notwithstanding Israel’s rejection of the court’s jurisdiction and lack of membership.