HAGUE. – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced this Monday the request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three leaders of the Palestinian movement Hamas, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After more than 200 days of war had passed between Israel and Hamas, the prosecutor of the court based in The Hague indicated in a statement that he processed the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, under the argument of ” deliberately starving civilians”, “intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder” in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s escalation in the Gaza Strip began after October 7, 2003, terrorists from the Hamas militia based in the Gaza Strip, entered Israeli territory in the context of a religious commemoration date, surprising the civilian population and massacred entire families in the southern part of the country where most of the communities called Kibbutz that rely on agricultural management are located.
As a result of the Hamas offensive in Israel, some 1,200 deaths were recorded, including children, women and the elderly. About 200 people were also taken to Gaza as hostages, many of whom have not yet been returned. Likewise, among those who have died while held hostage by Hamas, some families have not been able to recover their bodies.
However, prosecutor Kharin Khan in his report to issue the arrest warrant against Netanyahu attributes “crimes against humanity” to Israel and says “they are part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population in compliance with the policy of an organization”.
In response, Israel’s government, which is not part of the ICC, called the prosecutor’s request a “historic disgrace.”
The charges against Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Islamist movement, include “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “hostage-taking as a war crime”, in Israel and Gaza.
The request also affects Mohamed Al Masri, better known as “al Deif”, head of the Ezedin al Qasam brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Palestinian movement’s political bureau.
“We affirm that the crimes against humanity referred to in the requests are part of a widespread and systematic attack carried out by Hamas and other armed groups in furtherance of the policy of an organization,” the prosecutor said in the statement. .
In 2021, the ICC prosecutor opened an investigation into the actions of Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, for possible war crimes in the Palestinian Territories.
Khan stated that this investigation now “includes the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on October 7, 2023,” the Hamas assault on Israeli territory that sparked the war.
“All wars have rules”
The prosecutor has on several occasions called for the release of all hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 and taken to Gaza and has warned against an Israeli military operation in Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory.
“All wars have rules and the laws applicable to armed conflict cannot be interpreted to render them empty or meaningless,” Khan said in February.
If the court issues the order, any of the 124 ICC member states would be obliged to detain Netanyahu if he moves to their territory.
This could complicate some of Netanyahu’s trips, but the international court does not have a force to ensure compliance with its orders, so this depends on its members.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
Source: With information from AFP
