The ICC’s chief prosecutor sees both Israel and Hamas leadership as guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The arrest warrants have not yet entered into force.
16:47•Updated 17:42
The Hague’s International Criminal Court (ICC) is considering arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant against.
Chief Prosecutor of the Court Karim Khan considers Israeli ministers to bear responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Gaza Strip.
For an American news channel for CNN Khan, who spoke, states that Israeli leaders are suspected of causing destruction and using famine as part of Israel’s war strategy, including by preventing numerous aid shipments from entering the Gaza Strip. In addition, they are accused of deliberately targeting the civilian population of Gaza.
According to the Ministry of Health, which operates under the authority of Hamas, the extremist organization that administers the Gaza Strip, more than 35,000 people, most of them civilians, have died in Gaza during the Israeli ground attack.
Khan has also sought arrest warrants for the top leader of the extremist organization Hamas To Yahya Sinwari, to the head of the organization’s armed wing For Mohammed Deif and to the leader of a political party To Ismail Haniyeh. The charges brought against the men concern the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
Khan sees Hamas leaders as responsible for the destruction, killings, hostage-taking, rape and sexual abuse of people held captive.
According to the UN Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and took hundreds of hostages in the October attack. 132 of them are still held captive in the Gaza Strip.
– On October 7, the whole world was shocked when people were pulled out of their bedrooms, homes and kibbutzim across Israel, Kahn tells CNN.
Arrest warrants to be heard by judges next
It is the first time that the ICC prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant against the leadership of a close US ally. The arrest warrants have not yet entered into force. A panel of ICC judges will next consider Khan’s application.
If the arrest warrants are approved, it would put the leaders of Israel and Hamas in the same position as the Russian president Vladimir Putin with whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant a year ago.
Israel and the United States are not members of the International Court of Justice. However, the ICC feels its jurisdiction extends to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as Palestinian Authority leaders recognized its jurisdiction in 2015.
Netanyahu said last month that the ICC’s possible arrest warrants against Israel’s leadership would be an injustice of historic proportions. According to him, Israel has its own legal system, which treats all possible violations very seriously.
Other politicians in Israel also gave a full thumbs up on Monday. of the Israeli foreign minister, representing Likud by Israel Katz according to the submission of arrest warrants is a scandal and comparable to the terrorist attack on October 7. The president of Israel and the main opposition politicians have also considered the arrest warrants outrageous.
Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid hoped that the US Congress would intervene in the situation and condemn the actions of the ICC.
Hamas has also rejected the arrest warrants presented to its leaders.
Khan, meanwhile, tells CNN that no one can consider themselves above the law.
– If Israel disagrees with the ICC, despite their jurisdictional objections, they have the right to appeal to the court’s judges. This is what I would also urge them to do.
In addition to the charges brought by the ICC prosecutor, South Africa also accuses Israel of the genocide of the Palestinians in a separate trial. The case is being heard at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ).