International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Ministry Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s war in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.

The court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif – a Hamas leader who Israel says was one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks. Israel said Deif was killed in an airstrike earlier this year.

Here’s the timeline of events:

• ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants: In May, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – alongside two other Hamas officials – on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

• What did Israel say? At the time, Israeli officials – including Netanyahu – condemned the decision. The Israeli prime minister said the decision “will not deter” Israel from carrying out its campaign in Gaza.

• What did Hamas say? The militant group said it “strongly condemns the attempts of the ICC Prosecutor to equate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders without legal basis.”

• ‘Nobody is above the law’: In the months after Khan’s announcement, a panel of ICC judges assessed Khan’s submission – eventually finding “there was no reason to halt the consideration of the applications for warrants of arrest,” according to an ICC statement Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has joined other Israeli politicians in condemning the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Sa’ar said the ICC had “lost all legitimacy for its existence and actions. It acted as a political tool serving the most extreme elements working to undermine peace, security, and stability in the Middle East.”

Sa’ar went on: “These orders are aimed not only personally against [Netanyahu and Gallant] but also represent an attack on Israel’s right to defend itself.”

The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir said: “The issuance of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and MK Yoav Galant is an unparalleled disgrace, though not surprising at all.”

Ben-Gvir added: “The International Criminal Court in The Hague once again demonstrates that it is antisemitic from start to finish. This is complete madness. I stand with the Prime Minister in this just war.”

President Isaac Herzog meanwhile described the warrants as “a dark day for justice. A dark day for humanity.”

Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court as it hasn’t signed the Rome Statute, which established the court. But that doesn’t mean its citizens cannot be prosecuted by the court.

The court had already been investigating possible crimes committed by Israel since 2014 in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. The investigation began in March 2021, and was referred to the court by the Palestinian Authority, which adopted the ICC’s mandate in 2015 as the State of Palestine. The ICC concluded then that it has jurisdiction on the conflict and, “by majority, that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu in May said that issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials would leave an “indelible stain” on the edifice of international law and justice, adding that the ICC was “founded as a consequence of the Holocaust” and should not attempt to “undermine” Israel’s fundamental right to self-defense.

Palestinian leaders have signed up to the Rome Statute in 2015. As such, the ICC has jurisdiction over actors in Gaza and other Palestinian territories and by extension, over actors in those territories, including Hamas.

The International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas official Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, who Israel said it killed in an airstrike in September.

The ICC said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Deif is responsible for “crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, torture, and rape and other form of sexual violence, as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, taking hostages, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape and other form of sexual violence.”

Deif bears “criminal responsibility” for these crimes, the court said, having “committed the acts jointly and through others… having ordered or induced the commission of the crimes,” and for failing to “exercise proper control over forces under his effective command and control.”

The court added that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity were part of a widespread and systematic attack directed by Hamas and other armed groups against the civilian population of Israel.” Hamas has never acknowledge Deif’s death.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Netherlands-based court said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for war crimes including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

It rejected Israel’s challenge of the court’s jurisdiction over the matter.