Worldwide Legal Courtroom chief prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan stated Monday that he was submitting purposes for arrest warrants on the ICC for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Protection Yoav Gallant, along with three senior Hamas leaders. The Hamas leaders listed by Khan are the group’s general political chief Ismail Haniyeh, its navy commander within the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar and the general chief of the group’s navy wing, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
The purposes shall be reviewed by ICC judges, who will decide whether or not the usual for the issuance of arrest warrants has been met amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.Â
“Right this moment we as soon as once more underline that worldwide regulation and the legal guidelines of armed battle apply to all,” Khan stated in a statement. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian chief — nobody — can act with impunity. Nothing can justify wilfully depriving human beings, together with so many ladies and kids, the essential requirements required for all times. Nothing can justify the taking of hostages or the focusing on of civilians.”
The warrants come after a months-long investigation into each Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel and Israel’s military response within the Gaza Strip. Hamas, lengthy designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel, had dominated over Gaza for nearly twenty years when the present warfare started.
In a press release on Monday, President Biden known as the transfer by the ICC “outrageous.”
“Let me be clear: no matter this prosecutor may indicate, there isn’t a equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Mr. Biden stated. “We are going to at all times stand with Israel in opposition to threats to its safety.”
Israel and Hamas react to ICC prosecutor request for arrest warrants
Each Israeli officers and Hamas additionally criticised the ICC chief prosecutor’s transfer.
In a video assertion on social media, Netanyahu stated that the ICC actions had been “an ethical outrage of historic proportions.”
“Mr. Khan creates a twisted and false ethical equivalency between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas. That is like creating an ethical equivalence after September eleventh between President Bush and Osama bin Laden,” Netanyahu stated.
The Israeli prime minister stated Khan was “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism which are raging internationally. By means of this incendiary resolution, Mr. Khan takes his place among the many nice antisemites of contemporary occasions.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated the announcement was, “past outrageous, and exhibits the extent to which the worldwide judicial system is at risk of collapsing.”
Herzog stated the transfer “emboldens terrorists around the globe, and violates all the essential guidelines of the courtroom… Any try to attract parallels between these atrocious terrorists and the democratically elected authorities of Israel — working to fulfil its obligation to defend and shield its residents solely in adherence to the ideas of worldwide regulation — is outrageous and can’t be accepted by anybody.”
The Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, a gaggle that represents the households of Israeli hostages nonetheless held in Gaza, applauded the ICC transfer in opposition to Hamas, however stated it was “not snug with the equivalence drawn between Israel’s management and the terrorists of Hamas. We consider the way in which to show this distinction to the world is by instantly coming into into negotiations that can free the hostages — the residing for rehabilitation, and the deceased for burial.”
Hamas additionally rejected the ICC prosecutor’s transfer, saying in a press release that it, “creates equality between the victims and the executioner,” and it known as on the courtroom to reverse its resolution, in line with the Reuters information company.
What crimes are Netanyahu and Gallant accused of?
Khan stated his staff believes Netanyahu and Gallant bear prison duty for warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity, together with hunger of civilians, willfully inflicting nice struggling, willful killing, deliberately directing assaults in opposition to a civilian inhabitants, extermination and/or homicide, persecution and different inhumane acts in the course of the warfare in opposition to Hamas.
“We submit that the crimes in opposition to humanity charged had been dedicated as a part of a widespread and systematic assault in opposition to the Palestinian civilian inhabitants pursuant to State coverage. These crimes, in our evaluation, proceed to today,” Khan stated.
He stated his workplace collected proof together with survivor and witness testimony and authenticated video that “exhibits that Israel has deliberately and systematically disadvantaged the civilian inhabitants in all elements of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
“Israel, like all States, has a proper to take motion to defend its inhabitants,” Khan stated. “That proper, nonetheless, doesn’t absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to adjust to worldwide humanitarian regulation. However any navy objectives they might have, the means Israel selected to realize them in Gaza — particularly, deliberately inflicting demise, hunger, nice struggling, and severe damage to physique or well being of the civilian inhabitants — are prison.”
Well being officers within the Hamas-run Palestinian territory say Israel’s aerial and floor operation in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed greater than 35,000 folks, most of them ladies and kids.
Netanyahu has acknowledged a demise toll in Gaza of 30,000 folks, however says about half of these killed have been militants.
What crimes are Sinwar, Hineyah and Al-Masri being accused of?
Khan stated his staff believes Sinwar, Haniyeh and Al-Masri bear prison duty for warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity together with extermination, homicide, taking hostages, rape and other acts of sexual violence, torture, different inhumane acts, merciless remedy and outrages upon private dignity.
“We submit that the crimes in opposition to humanity charged had been a part of a widespread and systematic assault in opposition to the civilian inhabitants of Israel by Hamas and different armed teams pursuant to organisational insurance policies. A few of these crimes, in our evaluation, proceed to today,” Khan stated.
He stated his workplace interviewed victims and survivors and picked up proof together with movies, and located that, “these people deliberate and instigated the fee of crimes on 7 October 2023, and have by their very own actions, together with private visits to hostages shortly after their kidnapping, acknowledged their duty for these crimes,” Khan stated.
Khan stated that medical data, video proof and interviews with victims and survivors, his workplace believes “there are affordable grounds to consider that hostages taken from Israel have been saved in inhumane situations, and that some have been topic to sexual violence, together with rape, whereas being held in captivity,” Khan stated, noting that his workplace was nonetheless investigating “reviews of sexual violence dedicated on 7 October.”
Hamas killed about 1,200 folks in its unprecedented assault and kidnapped roughly 240 others, about 100 of whom are nonetheless believed to be alive and held hostage inside Gaza.Â
What’s the ICC?
There are a variety of worldwide treaties — the Geneva Conference and the Geneva Protocol being two of crucial — that set up worldwide authorized requirements for warfare. Any violation of these requirements is a warfare crime that may be prosecuted on the Worldwide Legal Courtroom, generally known as the ICC, within the Hague, and can lead to imprisonment for perpetrators.
The Worldwide Legal Courtroom was based with the worldwide treaty recognized generally because the Rome Statute. It got here into being in 2002 and tries people for severe crimes below 4 broad classes: genocide, crimes in opposition to humanity, warfare crimes and the crime of aggression.
What nations are ICC signatories and the place does it have jurisdiction?
The ICC solely has jurisdiction over the 124 international locations that States Events to the Rome Statute and their residents, and neither the US nor Israel are signatories.
Khan has assessed that the courtroom does have jurisdiction to prosecute people over actions dedicated within the Palestinian territories and Palestinians in Israel, nonetheless, as a result of the U.N. acknowledges the State of Palestine as a signatory to the Rome Statute.
“The territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Financial institution, together with East Jerusalem,” Khan stated, including that his workplace assesses that the ICC has jurisdiction over Palestinians in Israel and Israelis performing in Palestinian territories.
