Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant during a news conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 28, 2023.Pool/Reuters
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said on Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement issued after more than seven months of war in Gaza that he had reasonable grounds to believe the five men “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He said he had applied for an arrest warrant for Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as for Mr. Netanyahu. They have overseen Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel.
Mr. Khan has also applied for arrest warrants for Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar; Mohammed Al-Masri, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas who is widely known as Deif; and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have dismissed allegations of war crimes, and representatives for both sides criticized Mr. Khan’s decision.
U.S. President Joe Biden also called the legal step “outrageous,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it could jeopardize negotiations on a hostage deal and ceasefire.
“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
While other Western allies of Israel echoed the U.S. position, Canadian officials did not comment as of Monday evening. The Globe contacted Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s office about the ICC prosecutor’s request for warrants, but a spokesperson said they would likely follow up on Tuesday.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that it respected the International Criminal Court, but that the simultaneous applications for arrest warrants for both Hamas and Israeli leaders “has created the incorrect impression of equivalency.”
And Italy’s Foreign Minister said it was “unacceptable” to equate the Israeli democratic government with Hamas.
“It seems to me truly singular, I would say unacceptable, to equate a government legitimately elected by the people in a democracy with a terrorist organization that is the cause of everything that is happening in the Middle East,” minister Antonio Tajani told a TV show.
And a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the ICC prosecutor’s action will not be helpful in “securing a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in.”
A panel of pretrial judges will determine whether the evidence supports the arrest warrants. But the court has no means to enforce such warrants, and its investigation into the Gaza war has been opposed by the United States and Israel.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, 2023, over alleged war crimes in the Ukraine war, but Monday’s step was the first time Mr. Khan has sought to intervene in the conflict in the Middle East.
“Israel, like all states, has a right to take action to defend its population,” Mr. Khan said. “That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.”
He said crimes against humanity allegedly carried out by Israel were part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to state policy.”
“These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day,” he said.
Evidence his office collected showed Israel had systematically deprived civilians of “objects indispensable to human survival,” including food, water, medicine and energy, he said. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant bore responsibility, he said, for Israel willfully causing great suffering and for killing as a war crime.
The Hamas leaders face allegations of bearing responsibility for crimes committed by Hamas including extermination and murder, the taking of hostages, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence.
The ICC is the world’s first permanent international war crimes court. Its 124 member states are obliged to immediately arrest the wanted person if they are on a member state’s territory.
A court of last resort, the ICC steps in only when a state is unwilling or genuinely unable to do so itself. Israel has said alleged war crimes in Gaza are being investigated domestically.
Israel and its main ally, the United States, are not members of the ICC. Neither are China or Russia.
Member states have in the past failed to hand over suspects who entered their territory, including Sudanese former president Omar Bashir, wanted since 2005 for war crimes and genocide.
But if warrants are issued against Israeli leaders, court members, including nearly all European Union countries, could be put in a diplomatically difficult position.
“This is a watershed event in the history of international justice,” said Reed Brody, a veteran war-crimes prosecutor. “The ICC has never, in over 21 years of existence, indicted a Western official. Indeed, no international tribunal since Nuremberg (against representatives of Nazi Germany) has done so.”
Israeli ministers and Palestinian representatives denounced the prosecutor’s moves.
“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a bloodthirsty terror organization [Hamas] is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the prosecutor’s decision to request warrants for the three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner.” Hamas demanded the arrest warrant request for its leaders be cancelled.
At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, and aid agencies have also warned of widespread hunger and dire shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
Some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 rampage, according to Israeli tallies.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has sought arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and defense minister, as well as Hamas leaders. His step into the globally divisive Israeli-Palestinian conflict has some of the ICC's most vocal backers questioning the extent of their loyalty.
Reuters