The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The ICC has also issued warrants for the arrest of the chief of Hamas’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, over his role in the October 7 attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Israel claims it killed Deif in an airstrike in August, but his death has never been confirmed by Hamas, with the ICC saying today that it is not in a position to determine whether he has been killed or remains alive.
The warrants turn Netanyahu and the other men into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a cease-fire to end the 13-month conflict.
But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court and several of the Hamas officials have been subsequently killed in the conflict.
The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required, with the men all liable for arrest if they travel to any of the more than 120 member countries.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic.
US President Joe Biden also blasted the prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. Hamas also slammed the request.
The court said today that there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe Netanyahu and Gallant oversaw attacks on the civilian population in Gaza.
‘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,’ the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
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.
‘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.
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Deif, saying it has ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that he is responsible for crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, torture, rape, as well as war crimes including the taking of hostages.
Referring to the October 7 attacks, the court said: ‘In light of the coordinated killings of members of civilians at several separate locations, the Chamber also found that the conduct took place as part of a mass killing of members of the civilian population, and it therefore concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of extermination was committed.’
The court previously said it was seeking an arrest warrant for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was assassinated in an explosion in Tehran in July.
It also withdrew its application for a warrant against Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the October 7 massacre and Haniyeh’s successor, after he was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last month.
The ICC is a court of last resort that only prosecutes cases when domestic law enforcement authorities cannot or will not investigate.
Israel is not a member state of the court. The country has struggled to investigate itself in the past, rights groups say.
Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague any time soon.
The court itself has no police to enforce warrants, instead relying on cooperation from its member states.