The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announced on Monday that he had requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders. Additionally, he sought warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister due to suspected war crimes.
Following over seven months of fighting in Gaza, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan stated in a statement that he had good reason to think the five individuals “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He claimed to have requested an arrest warrant for both Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Since the deadly incursion on Israel by the Palestinian militant group on October 7, they have overseen Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Khan has also requested arrest warrants for Mohammed Al-Masri, the leader of Hamas’ military arm and a well-known figurehead, Yahya Sinwar, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau.
Whether the arrest warrants are supported by the evidence will be decided by a panel of pre-trial judges. However, the US and Israel have blocked the court’s probe into the Gaza conflict, and it lacks the authority to execute such warrants.
Leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have refuted claims of war crimes. Moreover, delegates from both camps have chastised Khan for his choice.
“I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas,” Netanyahu said, calling the move a “complete distortion of reality.”
US President Joe Biden dubbed the legal move “outrageous.” However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned it would endanger talks on a truce and hostage agreement.
The decision of the prosecution to seek warrants for the three Hamas officials, according to senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, “equates the victim with the executioner”. Hamas urged that the request for an arrest warrant for its leaders be withdrawn.
THE ‘CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY’ NETANYAHU BEARS
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in the Ukraine war. However, Monday’s step marks the first time Khan has sought to intervene in the conflict in the Middle East.
“Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population,” Khan stated. “That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.”
According to him, Israel is accused of committing crimes against humanity as part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy.”
“These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day,” he stated.
He added that evidence gathered by his office demonstrated Israel’s persistent deprivation of “objects indispensable to human survival” like as energy, food, water, and medicine from civilian populations. He added that Israel was to blame for killing as a war crime and for intentionally creating immense pain; Netanyahu and Gallant were to blame.
It is said that the leaders of Hamas are accountable for several crimes carried out by the group, including as killing and extermination, hostage-taking, torture, rape, and other sexual assaults.
“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” Benny Gantz, the Israeli war cabinet minister, stated.
WATERSHED EVENT
The ICC is the first permanent international court for war crimes in history. If the desired individual is in one of the 124 member states’ territory, they must be arrested right away.
The ICC is a court of last resort that only intervenes when a state is genuinely incapable or unwilling to handle matters on its own. According to Israel, there are domestic investigations into alleged war crimes in Gaza.
China, Russia, Israel, and the United States, its principal ally, are not members of the International Criminal Court.
Former Sudanese President Omar Bashir, who has been sought since 2005 for war crimes and genocide, is among the accused that member states have previously refused to turn over.
However, court members, including almost all EU nations, may find themselves in a tough diplomatic situation if warrants are issued against Israeli officials.
Veteran war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody declared, “This is a watershed event in the history of international justice.” “The ICC has never, in over 21 years of existence, indicted a western official. Indeed, no international tribunal since Nuremberg (against representatives of Nazi Germany) has done so.”
According to the health ministry of the enclave, at least 35,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict in Gaza. Aid organizations have also issued warnings about severe fuel and medical supply shortages, as well as widespread starvation.
Israeli estimates place the number of casualties from the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack at about 1,200, with over 250 persons taken hostage.
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