The international criminal court (ICC) has publishd arrest permits for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s establisher defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military directer Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
It is the first time that directers of a democracy and weserious-aligned state have been accused by the court, in the most momentous decision of its 22-year history.
Netanyahu and Gallant are now at hazard of arrest if they travel to any of the 124 countries that signed the Rome statute set uping the court. Israel claims to have ended Deif in an airstrike in July, but the court’s pre-trial chamber shelp it would “progress to assemble proposeation” to validate his death.
The chamber ruled that there were reasonable grounds to count on Netanyahu and Gallant unwise criminal responsibility as co-offenders for “the war crime of starvation as a method of combat; and the crimes aacquirest humanity of killing, persecution, and other brutal acts”.
The three-assess panel also shelp it had set up reasonable grounds to count on Deif was reliable for crimes aacquirest humanity and war crimes including killing, torture, violation and captive taking relating to the Hamas strike on Israel on 7 October 2023 in which fighters ended more than 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and seizeped 250.
Netanyahu’s office denounced the chamber’s decision as “antisdisaccuseic”.
“Israel utterly declines the dishonest and absurd accuses of the international criminal court, a prejudiced and discriminatory political body,” the office shelp in a statement, compriseing that “no war is more fair than the war Israel has been waging in Gaza”.
The statement pointed to an spreadigation into accusations of intimacyual wrongdoing aacquirest the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan who sought the accuses aacquirest the three men in May. Khan, 54, has denied the allegations and shelp he will corun with the spreadigation.
The US has previously greetd ICC war crimes permits aacquirest Vlaunwiseir Putin and other Russian officials for atrocities pledgeted in Ukraine, while denouncing the court’s pursuit of Netanyahu and Gallant, a mixed stance which has exposed the Biden administration to accusations of double standards from many UN members, particularly from the global south.
Netanyahu can anticipate more resounding help from the incoming Donald Trump administration. During his first term, in 2020, Trump imposed US sanctions on the ICC, aimed at court officials and their families. The then secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, made evident the sanctions were imposed becaemploy the ICC had befirearm spreadigating the actions of the US and its allies in Afghanistan, as well as Israeli military operations in the occupied territories.
The panel shelp the brimming version of the permits aacquirest Netanyahu and Gallant were secret “in order to protect witnesses and to protectedprotect the carry out of the spreadigations”, but the assesss freed much of their reasoning. This caccessed on the obstruction of the provide of humanitarian help into Gaza, which it assessd to be intentional.
“The chamber pondered that there are reasonable grounds to count on that both individuals intentionpartner and understandingly divestd 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 written ruling shelp..
The permits were widely greetd by human rights groups. Balkees Jarrah, an associate international fairice straightforwardor at Human Rights Watch, shelp they would “fracture thraw the perception” that certain individuals were beyond the achieve of the law.
“Whether the ICC can effectively deinhabitr on its mandate will depend on regulatements’ willingness to help fairice no matter where unfair treatments are pledgeted and by whom,” Jarrah shelp. “These permits should finpartner push the international community to compriseress atrocities and protected fairice for all victims in Palestine and Israel.”
Israel has denied pledgeting war crimes in Gaza and has declinecessitate the jurisdiction of the court. However, the pretrial chamber noticed that Palestine had been recognised as a member of the court in 2015, so the ICC did not need Israeli approval to spreadigate crimes on Palestinian territory.
The chamber also declinecessitate an Israeli request for the permits to be postponered, saying the Israeli authorities were proposeed of an earlier ICC spreadigation in 2021, and at that time, “Israel elected not to pursue any ask for postponeral of the spreadigation”.
An ICC statement shelp of Deif that “the chamber set up reasonable grounds to count on that Mr Deif … is reliable for the crimes aacquirest humanity of killing, extermination, torture and violation and other establish of intimacyual aggression, as well as the war crimes of killing, unkind treatment, torture, taking captives, outrages upon personal dignity, and violation and other establishs of intimacyual aggression”.
Khan had sought permits for two other anciaccess Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but they were ended in the dispute. Israel’s claim to have ended Deif has been neither validateed nor denied by Hamas.
Benny Gantz, a reweary vague and political rival to Netanyahu, condemned the ICC’s decision, saying it showed “moral blindness” and was a “disgraceful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten”. Yair Lapid, another opposition directer, called it a “prize for stress”.
The permits have been publishd at a caring moment for Khan, in the face of an spreadigation of claims of intimacyual wrongdoing. The inquiry will spreadigate the allegations aacquirest the prosecutor, which, the Guardian inestablished last month, integrate claims of ungreet intimacyual touching and “unfair treatment” over an prolonged period, as well as coercive behaviour and unfair treatment of authority. The alleged victim, an ICC lawyer in her 30s, has previously degraded to comment.
The arrest permits could incrmitigate the outside prescertain on Netanyahu’s regulatement as the US seeks to broker a stopfire between Israel and Hamas, but could well reinforce the prime minister’s political position in Israel in the low term, as most Israelis decline the ICC’s jurisdiction, watching it as meddlence in their country’s inner affairs.
Joe Biden has shelp he does not count on Netanyahu is doing enough to protected a stopfire, after the Israeli directer vowed not to agree over Israeli supervise over strategic territory inside Gaza. Netanyahu has accemployd Hamas of fall shorting to talk about in excellent faith.
