The Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister and a Hamas army commander for alleged warfare crimes.
Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have been accused of “crimes towards humanity and warfare crimes dedicated from no less than 8 October 2023 till no less than 20 Could 2024”, an announcement from the court docket mentioned on Thursday.
There are “cheap grounds” to consider that Gallant and Netanyahu “deliberately and knowingly disadvantaged the civilian inhabitants in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, together with meals, water, and drugs and medical provides, in addition to gas and electrical energy”, it mentioned.
The court docket additionally determined “unanimously” to challenge an arrest warrant for Hamas’s army commander Mohammed al-Masri, referred to as Mohammed Dief, “for alleged crimes towards humanity and warfare crimes dedicated” in Israel and Palestine from October 7, 2023.
It accused him of crimes together with homicide, torture, rape and different types of sexual violence.
Israel claims to have killed Deif in an air raid in southern Gaza in July. However the court docket determined to proceed with the warrant, saying it was “not able to find out whether or not [he] has been killed or stays alive”.
Chief prosecutor Karim Khan had utilized for arrest warrants towards the Israeli officers and three Hamas leaders in Could for alleged crimes dedicated in the course of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent warfare on Gaza.
ICC prosecutors mentioned there have been cheap grounds to consider Netanyahu and Gallant, in addition to Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Deif, bear prison accountability for alleged warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July. Sinwar was killed in fight with the Israeli army in October.
Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this month, saying he had misplaced confidence in him over the administration of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel shouldn’t be a member of the ICC and Netanyahu has beforehand referred to as the prosecutor’s accusations towards him a “shame”, an assault on the Israeli army and all of Israel.
However the ICC mentioned on Thursday that it had unanimously determined to reject Israel’s attraction over the the court docket’s jurisdiction.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut mentioned, “Israel did its finest to discredit the ICC. It tried to problem its jurisdiction … and Israeli politicians internally have been doing every little thing they might to combat [the potential ruling].”
Israeli opposition chief Yair Lapid condemned the court docket’s resolution, characterising Israel’s warfare on Gaza as a combat for its life “towards terrorist oganisations”.
Former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman posted on social media platform X that Israel “is not going to apologise for shielding its residents and is dedicated to persevering with to combat terrorism with out compromise”.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara praised the court docket’s resolution to challenge the long-awaited arrest warrants, saying “eventually, the folks of Gaza, after a 12 months of unfolding genocide, would possibly be capable to see their perpetrators face justice”.
Gaza’s Ministry of Well being mentioned on Thursday that Israel’s warfare in Gaza has killed no less than 44,056 Palestinians and wounded 104,286 since October 7, 2023.
An estimated 1,139 folks have been killed in Israel in the course of the Hamas-led assaults that day, and greater than 200 have been taken captive.
