Violent fighting in Gaza, Israel and Hamas denounce arrest warrants requested from the ICC

Violent fighting pits the Israeli army and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at a time when the two enemy camps denounce the arrest warrants requested from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against their leaders for alleged war crimes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including “deliberately starving civilians,” “intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder”.

The accusations against Hamas leaders also targeted by this request for arrest warrants, notably its leader in Gaza Yahya Sinouar, include “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “taking of hostages as a war crime.

“Disgust”

The Israeli Prime Minister “rejected with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between Israel,” a “democratic” country, and “the mass murderers of Hamas.” His Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, denounced a “scandalous decision” and “a historic dishonor” for the court in The Hague.

The Palestinian Islamist movement for its part denounced “the attempts of the prosecutor (…) to assimilate the victim to the executioner”.

American President Joe Biden, Israel’s main ally, considered the arrest warrant requested against Benjamin Netanyahu “scandalous”, saying that “there is no equivalence” between Israel and Hamas. He “rejected” the term “genocide” to describe the Israeli offensive in Gaza, during an American Jewish event at the White House.

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, also described these mandates as “shameful”, warning that they “could compromise” negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza, and adding that the ICC did not “jurisdiction” over Israel.

Hostages found in tunnels

The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. Of the 252 people then taken as hostages, 124 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 37 have died according to the army.

The bodies of four hostages, found last week in Gaza, were found in tunnels in Jabalia, in the north of the territory, the army said Monday evening, according to which Ron Benjamin, Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerente had been killed on October 7 on Israeli soil and their remains transported to Gaza.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and which it describes as terrorist, as have the United States and the European Union. His army launched a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip which it besieged, leading to the deaths of at least 35,562 people, most of them civilians, including 106 in the last 24 hours, according to data Monday from the Ministry of Defense. Health of the Hamas-led Gaza government.

Humanitarian disaster

The military operations also caused a humanitarian catastrophe. The majority of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine and more than half displaced, according to the UN.

Israeli military planes and helicopters carried out new strikes on Monday on the Gaza Strip, where ground fighting is also taking place between Palestinian soldiers and armed groups.

In the northern Palestinian territory, the air force bombarded Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp, where the army reported “perhaps the fiercest” fighting since October.

Civil defense reported eight deaths and injuries in an Israeli strike on an apartment of the Al-Attar family in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza. The Israeli army also indicated that it had carried out “targeted raids” in the center of the Palestinian territory.

In the South, a strike hit a house in the Tal al-Sultan district, west of the city of Rafah, killing three and wounding eight, according to hospital sources. Rafah was also targeted by Israeli naval fire, witnesses said. “We are being killed in our homes in our sleep, civilians including children and women are dying and no one cares about us,” laments Obeid Khafaja, a resident of Tal al-Sultan.

“Targeted raids” near Rafah

The army has intensified its ground operations, mainly in eastern Rafah, backed by the closed border with Egypt, saying it wants to reduce the last Hamas battalions there. It claims to carry out “targeted raids against terrorist infrastructure”, according to the army.

Despite opposition from many capitals and humanitarian organizations to a major ground operation in Rafah, the Israeli defense minister insisted on Israel’s “duty to expand the ground operation in Rafah, dismantle Hamas and make return the hostages,” by receiving White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan this weekend.

Since the Israeli evacuation order from the eastern districts of Rafah on May 6, on the eve of the entry of Israeli tanks into this sector, “about half of the population of Gaza” with 2.4 million inhabitants , was “forced to flee” again, said Sunday Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

“The question that haunts us is where will we go? Now everyone is wondering how to satisfy their food needs and how to escape death,” said Rafah resident Sarhan Abou al-Saïd.

Netanyahu under pressure

Since May 7, when Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on the Palestinian side, the delivery of humanitarian aid has virtually stopped. This passage is crucial for aid, including fuel, essential for hospitals and humanitarian logistics.

With no prospect of an end to hostilities in sight, Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to prepare a strategy for the future of Gaza. Sunday in Jerusalem, Jake Sullivan called on him to accompany military operations with a “political strategy” for the future of the Palestinian territory.

Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, threatened to resign if a post-war “action plan” was not adopted quickly. Mr. Gallant called on Benjamin Netanyahu to “immediately prepare” a “governmental alternative to Hamas”.

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