ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel's Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes

Prosecutor says there are grounds to believe Prime Minister and former defence minister oversaw attacks on civilians

Arrest warrants have been issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Reuters

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant will formally face prosecution at the International Criminal Court after arrest warrants were issued against them on Thursday on charges of overseeing attacks on the civilian population of Gaza.

Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, named as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al Masri in the warrants, is also sought by the court, even as uncertainty exists over his fate in the conflict.

Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and anti-Semitic.

US President Joe Biden called the arrest warrants "outrageous" and said there was "no equivalence — none" between Israel and Hamas.

The US “fundamentally rejects” the decision, the White House said on Thursday. “We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor's rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision. The United States has been clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” a National Security Council representative said.

The warrant for Mr Deif cites the Hamas attacks of October 7 and the taking of scores of hostages, many of whom have been missing for more than a year.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said it rejected “with disgust the absurd and false actions levelled against it by the ICC”. It condemned the ICC’s decision as “anti-Semitic” and “comparable to the modern-day Dreyfus trial”, referring to Alfred Dreyfus, a 19th century Jewish French army officer who was wrongfully convicted of treason and whose case sparked a national crisis.

Hamas welcomed the warrants as an “important step towards justice”. Its senior political official Basem Naim said the court's decision “remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world to implement it”.

The ICC's move now theoretically limits the movement of Mr Netanyahu because any of the court's 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory. Israel has faced growing international criticism over its conduct of the Gaza war, including from its allies.

Dozens were killed or unaccounted for in Gaza on Thursday after Israeli strikes. One strike near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the territory left “dozens of people” dead or missing, the facility's director Hossam Abu Safiya said. Another strike was reported in a neighbourhood of Gaza city, with civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal saying 22 were dead.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the war has reached 44,056 people, most of them civilians.

Mr Khan sought the warrants in May and the three-judge panel has now approved prosecution. The chief prosecutor has since May faced accusations of sexual harassment in the workplace and suggested these are attempts to interfere with the prosecution.

Judges approving the arrest warrant request said they found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes … as co-perpetrators”, listing them as “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

They also accused the pair of “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”. The judges rejected Israel's challenge to the request, which argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in Palestine, or over Israeli nationals.

“The acceptance by Israel of the court’s jurisdiction is not required, as the court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of territorial jurisdiction of Palestine,” the judges said. The original application included Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh but the pair were subsequently killed.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the judges' decision as a “dark day for humanity”. “Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice – from the Allied victory over the Nazis till today,” he said on social media.

“It ignores the plight of the 101 Israeli hostages held in brutal captivity by Hamas in Gaza. It ignores Hamas's cynical use of its own people as human shields. It ignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has the duty and right to defend its people.”

Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot said the decision marked a “good day for those who believed in internationalism”. “The ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant [are] not only a step towards accountability and justice in Palestine but also a step to restore the credibility of the rules-based international order and its judicial system,” he wrote on social media.

Others welcomed the decision. Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, urged the international community to work together.

“As the international community braces for potential repercussions, we must work together to keep the flame of accountability burning bright. May this time of darkness see the call for justice grow stronger,” she wrote on social media.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the warrants were “binding” and should be implemented. “It is not a political decision. It is a decision of a court, of a court of justice, of an international court of justice. And the decision of the court has to be respected and implemented,” Mr Borrell said during a visit to the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Pressure is now growing on the UK and other member states of the ICC to uphold the court's arrest warrants decision. “It is now incumbent upon all parties who say they support the institutions of international law, human rights and justice to act on the ICC's warrants,” Mr Zomlot said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would abide by international law if Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant were to travel to the country.

“We stand up for international law and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts. It's just who we are as Canadians,” Mr Trudeau said.

“The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said British independent MP Zarah Sultana. “The UK government must comply with the ICC, end all arms sales, impose economic sanctions and suspend its trade deal with Israel. Nothing less will do.”

Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu is now officially a wanted man. ICC member states and the whole international community must stop at nothing until these individuals are brought to trial before the ICC's independent and impartial judges.”