Agencies
THE HAGUE
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister and a Hamas military commander for alleged war crimes.
Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were accused of "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024”, a statement from the court said on Thursday.
There are "reasonable grounds” to believe that Gallant and Netanyahu "intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”, it said.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that "Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC”, adding that Israel won’t "give in to pressure” in the defence of its citizens.
The court also decided "unanimously” to issue an arrest warrant for Hamas’s military commander Mohammed al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, "for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed” in Israel and Palestine from October 7, 2023.
It accused him of crimes including murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive. Israel claims to have killed Deif in an air raid in southern Gaza in July. But the court decided to proceed with the warrant, saying it was "not in a position to determine whether [he] has been killed or remains alive”.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan had applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli officials and three Hamas leaders in May for alleged crimes committed during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza. ICC prosecutors said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant – as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Deif – bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July. Sinwar was killed in combat with the Israeli military in October.
Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this month, saying he had lost confidence in him over the management of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel is not a member of the ICC and Netanyahu has previously called the prosecutor’s accusations against him a "disgrace”, an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.
But the ICC said on Thursday that it had unanimously decided to reject Israel’s appeal over the court’s jurisdiction.
The Israeli prime minister’s office in a statement called the move "anti-Semitic” and likened it to a "modern-day Dreyfus trial”, a reference to an incident in France around the turn of the 20th century in which a French military man of Jewish descent was wrongfully convicted of treason.
"Israel vehemently rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body,” the statement said.
Hamas welcomed the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister as an "important step towards justice”.
"[It is] an important step towards justice and can lead to redress for the victims in general, but it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world,” Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim said in a statement.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that residents remained sceptical.
"It is taken with a little bit of scepticism… again, we know the unwavering American support [for Israel],” he said.
"So people are very suspicious of the outcome of this arrest warrant and say that it might be challenged by the US administration, whether it is the [current] one or the [incoming administration], which has also vowed support to Israeli officials.”
At least 44,056 people have been killed and 104,286 others wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.