The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity due to the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, said the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, in an interview with CNN on Monday (20).
Khan stated that the ICC prosecution team is also seeking warrants for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as for two other key Hamas leaders – Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, leader of the Al Qassem Brigades, better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas.
The warrants against Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted a top leader of a close U.S. ally. The decision places Netanyahu alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant due to Moscow’s war against Ukraine, and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who faced an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity when he was killed in October 2011.
By seeking detention warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders in the same action, Khan’s office risks drawing criticism for equating a terrorist organization with an elected government.
An ICC panel of judges will now consider Khan’s request for the arrest warrants.
Khan stated that the charges against Hamas’s Sinwar, Haniyeh, and al-Masri include “extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault.”
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of warfare, including the denial of humanitarian aid supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” Khan said.
Netanyahu labeled the decision as “a political outrage.”
“They will not stop us, and we will continue the war until the hostages are released and Hamas is destroyed,” he said at a meeting of his party’s parliamentary group.
Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC. However, the ICC claims jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, after Palestinian leaders formally agreed to be bound by the court’s founding principles in 2015.
The ICC announcement is separate from the case currently being heard by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding a South African accusation that Israel is committing genocide in the war against Hamas following the October 7 attacks.
Located in The Hague, Netherlands, and established by a treaty known as the Rome Statute, first presented to the United Nations, the ICC operates independently. Most countries – 124 of them – are parties to the treaty, but there are notable exceptions, including Israel, the U.S., and Russia.
This means that if the court grants the prosecution’s request and issues arrest warrants for the five men, any member country will have to arrest and extradite them to The Hague.
According to the court’s rules, all signatories of the Rome Statute are obligated to fully cooperate with its decisions. This would make it extremely difficult for Netanyahu and Gallant to travel internationally, including to many countries that are among Israel’s closest allies – including Germany and the United Kingdom.
And the United States in all of this?
It remains loyal to its ally Israel.
President Joe Biden vehemently condemned the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, calling it “outrageous.”
“Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor may suggest, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas,” the president wrote. “We will always stand by Israel against threats to its security.”
Source: CNN