ICC seeks arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Hamas leaders

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the 7 October attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement on Monday.

Mr Khan said the ICC is also seeking warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.

CNN reports that the warrants against the Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States.

The decision puts Mr Netanyahu in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

A panel of ICC judges will now consider Mr Khan’s application for the arrest warrants. If the judges agree, then countries who are members of the ICC would have an obligation to arrest Mr Netanyahu and the others if they visit their territory.

Mr Khan said the charges against Messrs Sinwar, Haniyeh and Al-Masri include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.”

“The world was shocked on the 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel,” Mr Khan told CNN, adding that “people have suffered enormously.”

Meanwhile, the charges against Messrs Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and intentionally directing against a civilian population,” Mr Khan said.

The ICC prosecutor said evidence collected and examined by his office shows “reasonable grounds” to believe Messrs Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine.”

When reports surfaced last month that the ICC chief prosecutor was considering this course of action, CNN reported that Mr Netanyahu said that any ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials “would be an outrage of historic proportions,” and that Israel “has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law.”

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On Monday, CNN asked Mr Khan about the comments made by Mr Netanyahu. “Nobody is above the law,” he replied.

He said if Israel disagrees with the ICC, “they are free, notwithstanding their objections to jurisdiction, to raise a challenge before the judges of the court and that’s what I advise them to do.”

Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC. However, the ICC claims to have 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.

About a fortnight ago, a dozen US senators sent a letter to Mr Khan, warning him not to issue international arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and threatening him with “severe sanctions” if he does so.