The International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken an unprecedented step by seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
These warrants are in response to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the terror attack on Israel on October 7.
The three Hamas leaders targeted are Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, facing accusations of murder, hostage-taking, and sexual abuse during the October attack.Â
Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of starvation of civilians, murder, and persecution during Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said, in a Monday statement, “Now, more than ever, we must collectively demonstrate that international humanitarian law…applies to all individuals and applies equally across the situations addressed by my Office and the Court,” adding that this approach affirms the equal value of all human lives.
Karim’s statement on the ICC website noted, “My Office submits that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery and statements from the alleged perpetrator group, shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
The ICC’s move has drawn sharp criticism from Israeli officials. One official accused the ICC prosecutor of crossing a red line with baseless allegations, asserting that these actions will not deter Israel from defending itself.Â
Prime Minister Netanyahu vehemently disputed the comparisons drawn between Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces, questioning, “With what audacity do you compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world?”
On the other side, Hamas has also condemned the ICC’s actions as unjust, stating that it “strongly denounced the attempts of the Prosecutor…to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders, without a legal basis.”Â
The applications now go to an ICC pre-trial chamber for review, marking a rare international judicial move against the leadership of a United States-allied government.
The ICC asserts its jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continuing its pattern of addressing international disputes, as seen in its previous issuance of an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.
