By Mark Ogagan
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif.
“The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest,” the Hague-based ICC said in a statement, adding a warrant was also issued for Deif.
The international court rejected challenges from Israel to its jurisdiction, announcing that it had issued warrants for both Netanyahu and Gallant — whom the Israeli prime minister fired just last month — over the country’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
Israel responded furiously, with the country’s president labeling it an “outrageous decision” and “a dark day for humanity.” A senior Hamas official praised the court, saying that the warrants showed that “international justice is with us.”
The news came as the death toll in the Palestinian enclave passed 44,000, including thousands of children, according to local officials.
The ICC said the warrants were related to “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October, 2023 until at least 20 May, 2024,” including “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
It also said reasonable grounds were found to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore criminal responsibility as “civilian superiors” for the war crime of ” intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
Netanyahu and Gallant were accused of having “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.”
The ICC said it further found that their conduct had hampered the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential items to those in desperate need in the enclave.
Neither Israel nor the U.S. recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, which has no police to enforce its warrants. But they do put the officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe, which could make it difficult for Netanyahu to travel.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said in May that he was filing applications for the arrest of Netanyahu, Gallant and other senior Israeli officials. He had also sought arrest warrants for Hamas figures who have played key roles in the ongoing war, including leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in Gaza in October.
On Thursday the court issued a separate arrest warrant for Deif, an alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attack whom Israel said it killed earlier this year.
Deif was accused of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including for his role in the Oct. 7 terror attacks in which Israeli officials said some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, a major escalation in the decadeslong conflict.
The ICC noted that Khan had initially filed applications for arrest warrants for Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated in July. But it said the applications were withdrawn following confirmation of their deaths.
The court launched an investigation three years ago into possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the Israel-Hamas war in 2014.
Netanyahu has labeled Khan a “rogue prosecutor who’s out to demonize the one and only Jewish state.”
And Thursday’s development drew swift condemnation from Israeli officials, with Herzog saying the arrest warrants marked a “dark day for justice.”
“Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock,” he said.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s former ambassador to the U.N., condemned the move as “absurd.” In a post on X, he said the development highlighted a “broken & immoral international system, which encourages terrorists and radical regimes, while tying the hands of democracies seeking to defend themselves.”
Tagging president-elect Donald Trump in his post, he said it was “time to shape a new international system, led by countries dedicated to Western values, freedom, and the fight against terror.”
Netanyahu joins Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as a sitting head of state with an ICC arrest warrant hanging over his head.
The ICC issued a warrant for Putin in March 2023, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of its neighbouring country.
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