Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim A.A. Khan said on Monday that he would submit applications to the court for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in addition to three senior Hamas leaders. The Hamas leaders listed by Khan are the group’s overall political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, its military commander in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, and the overall leader of the group’s military wing, Muhammad Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.
The applications are reviewed by magistrates, who determine whether the standard for issuing an arrest warrant is met. Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
“Today we reiterate that international law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Khan said. statement. No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader – no one can act with impunity. Nothing can justify deliberately depriving people, including so many women and children, of the necessities of life. Nothing can justify taking or taking hostages. Targeting civilians”.
The warrants come after a month-long investigation into both the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli terror attack. A military response in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, long considered a terrorist group by the US and Israel, had ruled Gaza for nearly two decades when the current war began.
In a statement on Monday, President Biden called the ICC’s move “outrageous.”
“Let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor may be implying, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said. “We will always stand by Israel against threats to its security.”
Israel and Hamas react to ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrant
Israeli officials and Hamas also criticized the ICC chief prosecutor’s move.
In a video statement posted on social media, Netanyahu said the ICC’s actions were “a moral outrage of historic proportions.”
“Mr. Khan is creating a false and false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the commanders of Hamas. It is the creation of a moral equivalence after 9/11 between President Bush and Osama bin Laden,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s prime minister said Khan “needlessly pours gasoline on the fire of anti-Semitism raging around the world. With this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan takes his place among the great anti-Semites of modern times.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the statement was “outrageous and shows the extent to which the international judicial system is in danger of collapsing”.
According to Herzog, this move “emboldens terrorists around the world and violates all the basic rules of the court … Any attempt to draw parallels between these brutal terrorists and the democratically elected government of Israel – working to protect and defend its duty. Citizens who fully abide by the principles of international law – is outrageous. and cannot be accepted by anyone.”
The Forum of Hostages and Missing Families, a group representing the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, welcomed the ICC’s move against Hamas but said it was “not comfortable with the equivalence drawn between the Israeli leadership and Hamas terrorists. We believe. This The way to prove the difference to the world is to enter into immediate negotiations that will release the hostages – the living for rehabilitation and the dead for burial.”
Hamas also rejected the ICC prosecutor’s move, saying it “creates equality between the victims and the executioner,” and it called on the court to reverse the decision, Reuters reported.
What crimes are Netanyahu and Galant accused of?
Khan said his team believes Netanyahu and Galant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation of civilians, intentional infliction of great suffering, intentional killings, intentional attacks against civilians, destruction and/or killings, persecution and on other inhuman acts. Acts during the war against Hamas.
“We submit that the alleged crimes against humanity were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population in accordance with state policy. These crimes, in our estimation, continue to this day,” Khan said.
He said his office had collected evidence, including survivor and witness statements and certified video, that “shows that Israel has deliberately and systematically deprived the civilian population throughout Gaza of the basic necessities of life.”
“Israel, like all states, has the right to take measures to protect its population,” Khan said. However, this right does not exempt Israel or any other state from its obligations under international humanitarian law. Whatever military goals they may have, the means Israel has chosen to achieve them in Gaza — namely, the intentional death, starvation, great suffering, and serious bodily or mental harm of civilians — are criminal.”
Health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory say an Israeli air and ground operation in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children.
Netanyahu acknowledged the death toll in Gaza at 30,000, but About half say Militants were among the dead.
What crimes are Sinwar, Hineya and Al-Masri accused of?
Khan said his team believes Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri are criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination, murder, and hostage-taking. Rape and other acts of sexual violenceTorture, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment and violation of personal dignity.
“We assert that the alleged crimes against humanity were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups in accordance with organizational policies. Some of these crimes, in our estimation, continue to this day,” Khan. said.
He said his office interviewed victims and survivors and collected evidence, including videos, and found that “these individuals planned and encouraged the commission of the crime on October 7, 2023, and have their own actions, including personal visits to the hostages shortly after their abduction.” have accepted their responsibility for these crimes,” Khan said.
Khan said that based on medical records, video evidence and interviews with victims and survivors, his office believes “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the hostages taken from Israel were held in inhumane conditions and that some were subjected to sexual abuse, including rape, while in captivity.” Khan said, noting that his office was still investigating “reports of sexual assault on October 7.”
Hamas killed about 1,200 people in its unprecedented attack and kidnapped about 240 others, of whom about 100 are still alive and being held hostage in Gaza.
What is ICC?
There are many international treaties – the Geneva Conventions and the Geneva Protocol being two of the most important – that set international legal standards for war. Any violation of these standards is a war crime that can be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, known as the ICC, in The Hague and can lead to the imprisonment of the perpetrators.
The International Criminal Court was established by an international treaty known as the Rome Statute. It was established in 2002 and prosecutes individuals for serious crimes under four broad categories: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.
Which countries are signatories to the ICC and where does it have jurisdiction?
The ICC has jurisdiction over only 124 countries, states parties to the Rome Statute and their nationals, and neither the United States nor Israel are signatories.
Khan noted that the court has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for acts committed in the Palestinian territories and Palestinians in Israel, however, because the United Nations recognizes the Palestinian state as a signatory to the Rome Statute.
“The territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” Khan said, adding that his office appreciates that the ICC has jurisdiction over Palestinians in Israel and Israelis operating in the Palestinian territories.