The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes over the war in Gaza
The court has also issued arrest warrants for Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. Israel said in August it had killed Deif in an air strike in Gaza earlier this year. Israel has vermently denied the allegations, with Mr Netanyahu’s office calling the ruling antisemitic.
Israel “categorically rejects the adsurd and false lies” levelled against it by the ICC, a statement said, adding that Mr Netanyahu will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred and will not not retreat until all of Israel’s war objectives are achieved”.
The conflict in Gaza was trigged by an attack inside Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023, during which around 1,200 Israelis were killed, while another 251 people were taken hostage. The ICC said it had found reasonable grounds to believe that Deif was responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, torture, rape and hostage
Israel’s retaliatory war from land and air, alongside a blockade, has killed 44,000 Palestinians, the majority women and childen, according to health authorities inside the besieged territory. Around 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes.
The move is a dramatic escalation of legal proceedings over the war in Gaza as it turns Mr 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 conflict. It means that ICC’s 124 member states – including the UK – would be obliged to arrest Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant if they were to enter their territory.
The ICC said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare” and that they had “intentionally and knowingly deprived” Gaza’s civilians of food, water, medicine, medical supplies and fuel and electricity.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that the arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant were “not political” and that the decsion from the ICC should be “respected and implemented”. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called the issuing of the warrants “one of the lowest points in Israeli history”.
The three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision: “The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”.
Aid agencies and the UN have been warning for months of an acute crisis across the Gaza Strip, with food, water, power and medical supplies applies all in increasingly short supply. Earlier this week, the UN warned that Palestinians are “facing diminishing conditions for survival” in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces for weeks, because virtually no aid has been delivered in 40 days. Earlier this month, a UN-backed assessment said there was a strong likelihood that famine was imminent in areas of northern Gaza.
UN agencies had planned 31 missions to the besieged areas of North Gaza governorate between 1 and 18 November, according to the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Twenty-seven were rejected by Israeli authorities and the other four were severely impeded, meaning they were prevented from accomplishing all the work they set out to do.
Israel has repeatedly insisted there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza, and accused Hamas of stealing aid, which Hamas has denied.
Over the weekend, a convoy of 109 UN aid lorries carrying food was violently looted in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said. UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini did not identify the perpetrators, but he said the “total breakdown of civil order” in Gaza, with people desperate for food and supplies, meant it had “become an impossible environment to operate in”.
On Thursday, Mr Lazzarini said on Thursday that 80 per cent of the Gaza Strip is now high-risk, with many people increasingly desperate.
In May, the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Mr Netanyahu, Mr Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have since been killed, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. Although Israel believes Deif has also been killed, the chamber said it was not able to confirm his death.
At the time, US President Joe Biden blasted the prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and a political rival of Mr Netanyahu, condemned the latest ICC move as showing “moral blindness” and that it was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten”. Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, called it a “prize for terror”. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called the issuing of the warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant an “absurd decision.”
The ICC itself has no police to enforce warrants – of which Israel and its major ally, the US, are not members – which means neither Mr Netanyahu or Mr Gallant are likely to face judges in the Hague. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, recently showed he could still visit an ally when he travelled to Mongolia, one of the court’s member states, and was not arrested.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and arguing that the court did not provide Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting the warrants. The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like that which exists in Israel has been treated in this prejudicial manner by the Prosecutor,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X. He said Israel remained “steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice” and would continue to protect its citizens against militancy.
On the ground in Gaza, medics said dozens had been killed in overnight airstrikes in northern Gaza, There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military, which has been operating in Beit Lahiya and the nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun since early last month in a campaign it said was aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping and waging attacks.
The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top UN court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide, an allegation Israeli leaders staunchly deny. Lawyers for Israel argued in court that the war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas who were guilty of genocide.
The ICC’s issuing of the arrest warrants comes in the wake of the court announcing an external investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against Mr Khan earlier this month. In a statement at the time, Mr Khan, who denies the allegations, said he “had previously called for an investigation in relation to this matter”.
“I welcome the opportunity to engage in this process,” he said, adding he would continue “all other functions as prosecutor” while the investigation is ongoing.
Source: independent.co.uk