The Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and a high Hamas chief on costs of warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.
That is the primary time that Netanyahu or any Israeli official has been indicted by a world courtroom for the continuing warfare on Gaza.
In a choice posted on-line on Thursday, the ICC charged Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas chief Mohammed Deif over Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assaults on Israel and Israel’s subsequent genocidal warfare in Gaza. Israel claimed to have killed Deif in July, nevertheless. It’s unclear whether or not he’s nonetheless alive.
Successfully, the defendants are actually internationally wished suspects and ICC member states are underneath authorized obligation to arrest them.
Israeli officers slammed the transfer, calling it “anti-Semitic”. Right here’s what this all means:
What’s the ICC accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of?
In a choice posted on-line, the courtroom stated it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for “crimes in opposition to humanity and warfare crimes dedicated from at the very least 8 October till at the very least 20 Could, 2024” and which associated to the usage of hunger and the deliberate focusing on of medical services.
The courtroom’s Prosecutor Karim Khan first requested the arrest warrants in Could. The courtroom says there are cheap grounds to consider Netanyahu and Gallant bear “legal accountability” for inflicting mass hunger in Gaza.
The courtroom has accused each Netanyahu and Gallant of collectively utilizing “hunger as a technique of warfare”, referring to Israel’s systemic restriction of meals and humanitarian help provides into the Gaza Strip all through the warfare.
The ICC additional accused the 2 leaders of the “crimes in opposition to humanity of homicide, persecution, and different inhumane acts” and referenced Israel’s deliberate focusing on of Gaza’s hospitals and its refusal to permit humanitarian and medical provides into the Strip.
What occurs subsequent? Does the ICC have a case?
The indictment means there shall be a trial if the arrests are made. There won’t be a trial till that occurs, nevertheless.
Talking to Al Jazeera after the information of the arrest warrants broke, political analyst Neve Gordon, professor of human rights legislation at Queen Mary College of London and vice chairman of the British Society for Center East Research, stated the ICC had a powerful case, and that proving the Israeli leaders’ intention to weaponise meals shall be pretty simple.
“Israel has been utilizing hunger as a weapon within the Gaza Strip for shut to twenty years,” Gordon stated. “I feel the intention of utilizing meals as a weapon is evident by the statements of Israeli leaders and the practices of the Israeli navy, and I feel this shall be simple to show.”
All 36 hospitals within the Gaza Strip have been focused, he added, and ambulances and healthcare employees hit within the near-incessant bombing campaigns on the Strip, as Al Jazeera has reported. Gordon stated this proof would assist construct the ICC prosecutor’s instances.
Virtually talking, will this alteration something?
It could. Netanyahu and Gallant will discover it troublesome to journey internationally the identical manner they did earlier than Thursday, as they may very well be arrested. That’s as a result of all 124 international locations which can be signatories to the Rome Statute of the Worldwide Prison Court docket are legally obliged to arrest them in the event that they journey to these international locations.
Nevertheless, this is able to not apply in the USA. Washington and Israel usually are not topic to ICC obligations as they don’t seem to be members of the courtroom. In follow, it isn’t probably that Netanyahu or Gallant shall be handed over to the ICC in the event that they journey to the US.
In addition to this, the ICC has no powers of enforcement and lacks its personal police power. The courtroom additionally issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however Putin has not been arrested.
Regardless of this, human rights organisations welcomed the choice to difficulty the warrants. Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, stated: “The ICC arrest warrants in opposition to senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break via the notion that sure people are past the attain of the legislation.
“Whether or not the ICC can successfully ship on its mandate will depend upon governments’ willingness to assist justice regardless of the place abuses are dedicated and by whom. These warrants ought to lastly push the worldwide group to handle atrocities and safe justice for all victims in Palestine and Israel.”
Analysts additionally stated the ICC’s resolution has far-reaching implications for Western nations – significantly the US and European international locations like Germany and the UK, which provide arms to Israel.
“By issuing the arrest warrant, the ICC has additionally made a sure demand on Western international locations,” Gordon, the political analyst, advised Al Jazeera. “If the leaders of Israel are charged with crimes in opposition to humanity, it means the weapons European international locations are sending are used to hold out crimes. Western international locations should now reassess their commerce agreements.”
Which Hamas chief has an arrest warrant been issued for?
The ICC additionally issued an arrest warrant for Hamas chief Mohammed Deif, also referred to as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, referring to his function within the October 7 Hamas-led assault on military outposts and villages in southern Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,139 individuals and the seize of greater than 250. Nevertheless, the Israeli navy claimed to have killed Deif in July this yr.
Deif was the chief of Hamas’s navy wing, the Qassam Brigades. Hamas has not confirmed the commander’s killing.
What reactions have there been to the arrest warrants?
Israeli officers instantly slammed the choice to difficulty the warrants, saying Israel has a proper to defend itself and calling the transfer “anti-Semitic.”
In a publish on X, opposition chief Yair Lapid condemned the courtroom’s resolution, characterising Israel’s warfare on Gaza as a struggle for its life “in opposition to terrorist organisations”.
Former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman additionally spoke out in opposition to the ruling, writing on X that it reveals the worldwide group’s “double requirements and hypocrisy”.
“The state of Israel won’t apologise for shielding its residents and is dedicated to persevering with to struggle terrorism with out compromise,” Lieberman stated.
US President Joe Biden in Could criticised the choice of the courtroom’s prosecutors to use for warrants, and stated the US would stand by Israel. The US has not commented on Thursday’s improvement.
