The Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced this Monday that it has requested permission from judges to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan has “reasonable grounds to believe” that they are “criminally responsible” for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Gaza. The decision constitutes one of the most energetic international responses against Israel’s actions in the Strip since the war began on October 7. Prosecutor Khan has also asked judges to arrest three Hamas leaders for the same crimes. Among them is Yahia Sinwar, head of the fundamentalist movement in Gaza. Israel is not a member of the ICC, but the prosecutor’s move puts pressure on and isolates its government and threatens to hinder the trips of its top political representatives abroad. Authorization to issue arrest warrants is the responsibility of the CFI judges, who have several months to rule.
At the beginning of May, prosecutor Khan warned that pressure against the ICC from Israel and the United States—in the face of a possible arrest warrant against Israelis for the war in Gaza—could constitute punishable acts. The British jurist has been investigating the behavior of both parties in this conflict for seven months and, in the case of Israel, his arrest request opens with a war crime little mentioned in other ICC cases to date: “starvation.” to civilians” at least since October 8, 2023. That is, the day after the Hamas attack against Israeli civilians, which caused 1,200 fatalities. At least 35,000 Palestinians have died to date, according to the health authorities of the Strip, in the hands of Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement).
The Israeli Government reiterates that its objective in this conflict is to end Hamas and is doing everything possible to protect Gazans. The CFI Prosecutor’s Office gives a completely different version. It emphasizes that the evidence collected—including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, video material, authenticated photographs and audio, and satellite images—demonstrates that Israel “has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects essential to human survival.” It adds that the effects of using starvation as a method of warfare, along with other collective punishments against civilians, “are acute and visible,” and famine “is present in some areas of Gaza and imminent in others.”
The TPI does not have police to make arrests, but its 124 members are obliged to arrest people wanted by the Prosecutor’s Office. This court is the only permanent instance to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, in addition to genocide. Only judge those most responsible.
Israel has the right to defend its population, according to prosecutor Khan, but this does not exempt the country from “complying with international humanitarian law.” Since the State of Palestine is a member of the ICC, the Prosecutor’s Office can investigate and prosecute both crimes committed by Hamas in Israeli territory and those perpetrated by Israel on Palestinian soil.
Join Morning Express to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
The arrest request against Netanyahu and Gallant includes three other war crimes: deliberately causing great suffering or serious harm to body and health; intentional homicide or murder; intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population. There are, on the other hand, three crimes against humanity: “extermination and/or murder, even in the context of deaths caused by starvation”; “persecution” and “other inhuman acts.”
According to William Schabas, professor of International Law at the British University of Middlesex, ICC judges have rejected some arrest warrants in the past, “but this case is solid and the Prosecutor’s Office has enlisted the help of a group of experts who maintain their request and it would be surprising if it were rejected.” In a telephone conversation, he says that he believes that states that support Israel, such as Germany, France or Canada, “are not going to challenge the ICC and will tell Prime Minister Netanyahu that, if he appears there, they are legally obliged to arrest him.”
In the arguments submitted to the judges, Khan differentiates, on the one hand, war crimes and, on the other, crimes against humanity. Thus, he maintains that the former were committed in the context of “an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas”, developed in parallel. The crimes against humanity, on the contrary, were perpetrated as part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population in application of state policy.”
Sexual violence against hostages
In the case of Hamas, the “reasonable grounds” to believe that three of its leaders “are fully responsible” for war crimes and crimes against humanity are repeated. In their case, perpetrated at least since October 7, 2023, the date of the assault that triggered Israel’s response. They are part of a systematic and widespread attack against Israeli civilians. The leaders identified are Yahia Sinwar, head of the militia in Gaza, Mohamed Diab Ibrahim al Marsi, known as Deif, who is the commander in chief of Hamas’ military wing, and Ismail Haniya, political leader of these militias. In his case, there are eight charges reported and they reflect “extermination”, “murder” and “inhuman acts”, as crimes against humanity. Also, the taking of hostages, cruel treatment and outrages to dignity, as war crimes.
The Prosecutor’s Office estimates that civilians captured in Israel “have been kept in inhumane conditions and some have been subjected to sexual violence, including rape.” Hence there are two other crimes that bring together both concepts of war crimes and crimes against humanity together: those of rape and sexual violence and torture.
In the case of Hamas, the context of the conflict is the same as that mentioned in the case of Israel, and the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that it believes that Sinwar, Deif and Haniya are “criminally responsible” for the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians in attacks carried out by Hamas. —particularly its military wing, the Ezedín al Qasam Brigades— and other armed groups on October 7, 2023, and the taking of at least 245 hostages.
To argue the arrest warrants, prosecutor Khan has consulted with a group of experts in international law, and emphasizes that “nothing or no one can justify deliberately depriving human beings of the basic needs of life.” “Nothing can justify the taking of hostages or attacks against civilians.” They are two phrases that point to both sides equally in the Gaza war.
The ICC opened its doors in 2002 as the only permanent body to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves. His most famous target is Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, for which an arrest warrant was issued against him in March 2023. Although the court has the support Of many members of the United Nations and the European Union, both the United States and China and Russia are not members: they fear it could be used against their citizens for politically motivated trials.
Follow all the international information onFacebook andxor inour weekly newsletter.
.
.
_
