On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister, and officials from the Hamas movement, accusing them of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza and the October 2023 attacks that led to the Israeli attack on the Palestinian Strip. province.
The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month-old conflict. But its practical effects could be limited because Israel and its main ally, the United States, are not members of the court, and several Hamas officials were later killed in the conflict.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned the request by ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants, describing it as disgraceful and anti-Semitic. US President Joe Biden also criticized the Attorney General and expressed his support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas. Hamas also criticized this request.
The Chamber considered that there were reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals deliberately and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of things indispensable for their survival, including food, water, medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity. The three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Muhammad Deif, a Hamas leader. The ICC Prosecutor had also requested arrest warrants for two senior Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but they were killed in the conflict.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal memorandums challenging the ICC's jurisdiction, saying the court had not given Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting arrest warrants.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like the one in Israel has been treated in such a damaging manner by the Attorney General,” State Department spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote in X. He said that Israel remains “steadfast in its commitment to Al Qaeda.” Law and Justice” and will continue to protect its citizens from extremism.
The ICC is a court of last resort that only tries cases that local 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 investigate the matter itself in the past.
Despite the arrest warrants, it is unlikely that any of the suspects will face judges in The Hague any time soon. The court itself has no police to enforce arrest warrants, relying instead on cooperation from its member states.
However, the threat of arrest could make it difficult for Netanyahu and Gallant to travel abroad, although Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted on an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, recently showed he could still visit an ally. When he travels. He was sent to Mongolia, one of the ICC member states, and was not arrested.
Khan sought arrest warrants in May, accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of crimes including murder, intentionally attacking civilians, and persecution.
In a statement issued at the time, Khan claimed that Israel had “deliberately and systematically deprived the civilian population throughout Gaza of things indispensable to human survival” by closing border crossings into the Strip and restricting basic supplies including food and medicine.
Meanwhile, three Hamas leaders – Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh – were charged with crimes linked to the October 7, 2023 attacks, when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others. The leaders are accused of crimes including murder, extermination, hostage-taking, rape and torture.
“The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Deif, born in 1965, the supreme commander of the military wing of Hamas (known as the Qassam Brigades) at the time of the alleged conduct, is responsible for crimes against humanity.” Murder, extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, in addition to the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment and torture; He says.
Prosecutors withdrew their request to issue an arrest warrant for Haniyeh, who was assassinated in a believed Israeli raid on Iran in July. Israel also claims to have killed Al-Deif, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. Sinwar, who had been promoted to succeed Haniyeh as Hamas leader, was killed in a chance encounter on the front line with Israeli forces in October.
Human rights groups praised the decision, which came more than six months after Khan submitted his initial request.
“The ICC’s arrest orders against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break the perception that some individuals are outside the scope of the law,” Balqis Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Israeli opposition leaders strongly criticized the ICC's move.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and political rival of Netanyahu, condemned the decision, saying it showed “moral blindness” and was “a shameful stain of historical proportions that will never be forgotten.”
Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, called it a “trophy for terrorism.”
