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The International Criminal Court said Thursday that it has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military leader Mohammad Deif, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court’s pretrial chamber accused the Israeli PM and Gallant — whom Netanyahu fired two weeks ago — of multiple crimes in Gaza from at least Oct. 8, 2023, until at least May 20, the day that the ICC’s chief prosecutor announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
In its announcement, the ICC wrote:
With regard to the crimes, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
The court said it has reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival,” by allegedly impeding the flow of aid into Gaza. The ICC said their conduct hampered the ability of humanitarian groups to provide food and other supplies to the people in Gaza and had a “severe impact” on hospitals’ ability to provide adequate care.
The court said that the lack of essential supplies “created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza,” resulting in civilian deaths, including children dying from malnutrition and dehydration.
Israeli politicians swiftly condemned the ICC, accusing the court of antisemitism.
Israeli politicians swiftly condemned the ICC, accusing the court of antisemitism. Netanyahu’s office said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and charges leveled against it” by the ICC. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the court “has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity.”
Israel and the United States do not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, and the court has no police body to enforce its warrants. But Netanyahu and Gallant could be arrested in the court’s member nations, including much of Europe. The State Department did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The Israeli military said Aug. 1 that it had killed Deif, who is believed to be one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel; Hamas has not confirmed his death. The ICC’s arrest warrant for the Qassam Brigades leader accuses him of crimes including murder, extermination, torture and sexual violence:
The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Deif bears criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes for (i) having committed the acts jointly and through others and (ii) having ordered or induced the commission of the crimes, and (iii) for his failure to exercise proper control over forces under his effective command and control.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor had also filed applications for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but withdrew them after their deaths were confirmed.
Some human rights organizations said they welcomed the arrest warrants as a step toward justice in the ongoing war. Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, called it a “historic breakthrough for justice and must signal the beginning of the end of the persistent and pervasive impunity at the heart of the human rights crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the warrants “against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that some are beyond the reach of the law.”