Israel, Hamas slam ICC prosecutor over arrest warrants

Israel and Palestinian extremist organization Hamas have blasted the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after he moved to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as several Hamas leaders.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz labelled the long-expected move a "scandalous decision," which he said represents "an unrestrained frontal assault on the victims of October 7th and our 128 hostages in Gaza."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that "any attempt to draw parallels between [Hamas] and a democratically elected government of Israel" was "outrageous."

"We expect all leaders in the free world to condemn outright this step and firmly reject it."

Hamas also slammed the request for arrest warrants against several of its leaders.

Khan's decision "compares the victim to an executioner and encourages the [Israeli] occupation to continue the war of extermination," the group said in a statement broadcast by the Hamas-affiliated TV station Al-Aqsa.

The request for warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant would relate to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip beginning on October 8, a day after Hamas militants launched their unprecedented attack on Israel.

Among the allegations are "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare" and "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population," a statement from Khan's office said.

Warrants have also been requested for Yehya al-Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, along with Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the head of the group's military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, who sits atop Hamas' political bureau and is seen as the group's overall leader.

They were accused by Khan of bearing responsibility for murders, rapes, hostage-takings, torture and other inhumane acts from at least October 7.

Al-Sinwar and al-Masri, more commonly known as Mohammed Deif, are assumed to have been hiding in Hamas' underground tunnel system in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Gaza war more than seven months ago. Haniyeh had reportedly been leading a life of luxury in Qatar with part of his family for years.

Fighters from Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza killed some 1,200 people in the unprecedented massacre on communities in southern Israel on October 7. They also injured and raped countless others and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel responded by sealing off the Palestinian territory and launching a massive aerial campaign to eliminate Hamas. At the end of October, Israeli ground troops were sent in and much of the coastal strip has since been rendered uninhabitable.

Some 35,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed in the fighting so far, while thousands of others are threatened by famine.

In his statement, Khan said that evidence gathered by his office "shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival."

This was achieved, among other things, "through the imposition of a total siege over Gaza," including the closure of border crossings from October 8 "for extended periods and then by arbitrarily restricting the transfer of essential supplies – including food and medicine – through the border crossings after they were reopened."

Khan said his office "submits that these acts were committed as part of a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population as a means to (i) eliminate Hamas; (ii) secure the return of the hostages which Hamas has abducted, and (iii) collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza, whom they perceived as a threat to Israel."

Regarding the Hamas leaders, Khan said evidence showed that al-Sinwar, al-Masri and Haniyeh "planned and instigated the commission of crimes on 7 October 2023, and have through their own actions, including personal visits to hostages shortly after their kidnapping, acknowledged their responsibility for those crimes."

He added that there were also "reasonable grounds to believe that hostages taken from Israel have been kept in inhumane conditions, and that some have been subject to sexual violence, including rape."

The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Israel does not recognize the court, but the Palestinian territories are a state party, so the prosecutor is authorized to investigate and has done so for months.

The judges of the ICC's pre-trial chamber will now decide whether the requested arrest warrants will be issued. If they consider the charges to be confirmed, main proceedings against the accused can be initiated.

Legally, an ICC arrest warrant against the persons concerned would mean that states that have signed the ICC statutes would be obliged to arrest these persons and hand them over to the court if they enter the territory of these states.

The United States, Israel's main ally, have not recognized the court.

Israeli Foreign Minister Katz said he wanted to speak to the foreign ministers of leading states so that they would oppose the prosecutor's decision "and declare that even if warrants are issued, they do not intend to enforce them against Israeli leaders."

At the end of April, Netanyahu slammed the prospect of a possible arrest warrants against him and other Israelis by the ICC as an "unprecedented anti-Semitic hate crime."