The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and senior Hamas official Mohammed Deif, accusing them of war crimes related to the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Netanyahu and Gallant face charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
This marks a historic first, as Netanyahu is the first Israeli leader to be summoned by an international court for alleged war crimes against Palestinians in the ongoing conflict.
Despite the warrants, the Israeli government has rejected the ICC’s actions, calling them politically biased and discriminatory.
The ICC also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas commander believed to have orchestrated the October 7 attacks.
The court accuses him of crimes including murder, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. While Israel claims Deif was killed in an airstrike in July, Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Israel, like the United States, is not a member of the ICC and disputes the court’s jurisdiction over its actions, particularly in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
The warrant announced against Netanyahu on Thursday puts him in the same category as Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the deposed president of Sudan, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 over crimes committed during Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including for the forcible deportation of children.
As part of their membership in the court, countries are required to arrest people for whom it has issued warrants, though that obligation has not always been observed.
The ICC is an international tribunal established to prosecute individuals for crimes that fall under its jurisdiction, including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.
It is the world’s first permanent international criminal court, created by the Rome Statute in 1998, and became operational in 2002.
The ICC operates as a court of last resort, meaning it intervenes only when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute perpetrators of serious crimes.
It is tasked with holding individuals accountable for egregious crimes that threaten international peace and security.
As of now, 123 countries are members of the ICC, though some major powers like the United States, China, Russia, and India are not members.
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