The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of Hamas’s armed wing Mohammed Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mr. Netanyahu immediately described the court’s decision as “anti-Semitic”.
“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd actions and false accusations aimed at it on the part of the [CPI] » whose judges “are driven by anti-Semitic hatred towards Israel”, adds a press release released by his office.
This arrest warrant theoretically limits the Israeli prime minister’s travel, since any of the court’s 124 member states would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
“The United States categorically rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson responded Thursday.
“We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s eagerness to request arrest warrants and by the troubling errors in the process that led to this decision,” he added in a reaction sent to AFP, in repeating that according to Washington, “the ICC did not have legal jurisdiction in this matter”.
Conversely, Italy, through its Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, said it was obliged to arrest the Israeli Prime Minister or his former minister in the event of a visit to the country, in virtue of its international commitments.
For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that Canada would arrest him if he set foot in the country. “Canada is one of the founders of our systems of international law and we will always follow the decisions and regulations of these bodies,” he declared Thursday at a press conference in Toronto.
For its part, Hamas considered that the arrest warrants against Israeli officials constitute “an important step towards justice”.
The ICC issued arrest warrants against MM. Netanyahu and Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least October 8, 2023 until at least May 20, 2024, the day the prosecution filed the requests for arrest warrants,” according to a press release.
In another statement, the ICC announced that it had issued an arrest warrant against Mohammed Deif, head of the armed wing of Hamas, “for crimes against humanity and alleged war crimes committed in the territory of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine since at least October 7, 2023.”
This arrest warrant “is extremely important. This means that the victims’ voices are being heard,” said Yael Vias Gvirsman, who represents the families of 300 Israeli victims of the October 7 Hamas attack.
According to Israel, Mohammed Deif was killed in a July 13 strike in southern Gaza, although Hamas denies his death.
An arrest warrant was still issued against him because the ICC prosecutor was not able to determine whether Deif was dead, the court said.
“Criminally responsible”
The ICC said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Messrs. Netanyahu and Gallant were “criminally responsible” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
The two men, according to the ICC, “are criminally responsible as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
They “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of things essential to their survival”, including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity, the court added.
This situation “created living conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population of Gaza,” according to the ICC, adding that it resulted in the deaths of civilians, including children.
“Based on the elements presented by the prosecution covering the period up to May 20, 2024, the chamber was unable to determine that all the elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were present,” added the Chamber. ICC.
However, she declared that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of murder had been committed against these victims.
The arrest warrants issued by the ICC are “unprecedented, justified and late,” said Reed Brody, a lawyer specializing in war crimes.
This creates “a dangerous precedent” which “encourages terrorism”, on the contrary reacted the former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, targeted by an arrest warrant.
“Classified secret”
The arrest warrants were classified “secret” to protect witnesses and ensure the proper conduct of investigations.
But the ICC “considers that it is in the interest of the victims and their families that they are informed of the existence of the warrants”.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan asked the court in May to issue arrest warrants against Messrs. Netanyahu and Gallant (who was fired in early November by the Israeli prime minister) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Mr. Khan had also requested arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders, including Mohammed Deif, on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has left at least 44,056 Palestinians dead, according to figures from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
It followed the unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos in Israeli territory on October 7, which led to the death of 1,205 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
With The Canadian Press
