ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan seeks arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged battle crimes.
The chief prosecutor of the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) has utilized for arrest warrants in opposition to high Israeli and Hamas leaders for alleged battle crimes.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan mentioned on Monday that his workplace had utilized for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders for alleged crimes dedicated throughout the Hamas-led October 7 assault on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent battle on Gaza.
Khan introduced his workplace had “cheap grounds” to consider that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant bear “legal duty” for “battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity”.
Khan additionally utilized for arrest warrants for 3 Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (often known as Deif), and Ismail Haniyeh – for battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.
Khan mentioned his workforce has discovered proof that Israel has “deliberately and systematically disadvantaged the civilian inhabitants in all components of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival”.
“This passed off alongside different assaults on civilians, together with these queuing for meals; obstruction of assist supply by humanitarian companies; and assaults on and killing of assist staff, which compelled many companies to stop or restrict their operations in Gaza,” he mentioned.
Khan added that Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip by closing the border crossings and proscribing the switch of meals, water and medical provides was a part of an Israeli plan to make use of hunger as a “technique of battle”.
Of the crimes allegedly perpetrated by Hamas, Khan mentioned his workplace had “cheap grounds to consider” that Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh had been “criminally answerable for the killing of a whole lot of Israeli civilians” throughout the October 7 assaults.
Hamas’s assaults on southern Israel “calls for accountability”, he mentioned, including that there have been additionally “cheap grounds” to consider the captives taken by the group and held in Gaza have been stored in “inhumane situations and that some have been topic to sexual violence, together with rape, whereas being held in captivity”.
Hamas denounced the appliance for arrest warrants for its leaders and Israeli officers, which it mentioned “equates the sufferer with the executioner”.
In an announcement, the group mentioned it has the appropriate to mentioned it has the appropriate to withstand Israeli occupation, together with “armed resistance.”
Israel will not be a member of the ICC and doesn’t recognise its jurisdiction. A number of Israeli ministers denounced Khan’s announcement.
Battle cupboard minister Benny Gantz mentioned the transfer was a “crime of historic proportion”.
“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic nation decided to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation is a deep distortion of justice and blatant ethical chapter,” Gantz mentioned.
Opposition chief Yair Lapid referred to as the choice a “catastrophe”. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich mentioned the choice was a “present of hypocrisy and Jew hatred”.
“Arrest warrants in opposition to them are arrest warrants in opposition to us all,” he mentioned.
Final month, Netanyahu mentioned it could be a “scandal on a historic scale” if the ICC issued arrest warrants for senior authorities officers.
“I wish to make one factor clear: no resolution, neither in The Hague nor anyplace else, will hurt our willpower to realize all of the targets of the battle – the discharge of all our hostages, an entire victory over Hamas and a promise that Gaza will now not pose a risk to Israel,” he mentioned.
Not less than 35,562 folks have been killed in Israel’s battle on Gaza, in accordance with Palestinian well being authorities, and assist companies have additionally warned of widespread starvation and dire shortages of gasoline and medical provides.
Not less than 1,139 folks had been killed within the Hamas-led assault on Israel, in accordance with an Al Jazeera tally primarily based on Israeli statistics, and and round 250 others had been taken hostage.
