The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a senior Hamas official, accusing them of war crimes during and after the October 7 attacks on Israel last year. <\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, the Netherlands-based court said it found \u201creasonable grounds\u201d to believe that Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for war crimes including \u201cstarvation as a method of warfare\u201d and \u201cthe crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.\u201d <\/p>\n
The warrants mark a historic first, making Netanyahu the first Israeli leader summoned by an international court for alleged actions against Palestinians in the 75-year conflict. While ICC warrants don\u2019t guarantee arrests, they could significantly restrict Netanyahu\u2019s ability to travel to ICC member states. <\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s office dismissed the warrants as \u201cabsurd and antisemitic.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael utterly rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, which is a politically biased and discriminatory body,\u201d his office said, adding that there is \u201cno war more just\u2026 after the Hamas terrorist organization launched a murderous attack against it, carrying out the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu \u201cwill not yield to pressure, will not back down, and will not retreat until all the goals of the war set by Israel at the start of the campaign are achieved,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
Israel, like the United States, is not a member of the ICC and has challenged the court\u2019s jurisdiction over its actions in the conflict \u2013 a challenge the court rejected on Thursday. The ICC claims jurisdiction over territories Israel occupies, including Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, following the Palestinian leadership\u2019s formal agreement to be bound by the court\u2019s founding principles in 2015. <\/p>\n
The court on Thrusday also issued a warrant for Hamas official Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack, Israel said it killed him in an airstrike in September but Hamas hasn\u2019t confirmed his death. <\/p>\n
The ICC said it found \u201creasonable grounds\u201d to believe that Deif was responsible for \u201ccrimes 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
Deif bears \u201ccriminal responsibility\u201d for these crimes, the court said, having \u201ccommitted the acts jointly and through others\u2026 having ordered or induced the commission of the crimes,\u201d and for failing to \u201cexercise proper control over forces under his effective command and control.\u201d <\/p>\n
The court added that there are \u201creasonable 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
A number of Israeli politicians condemned the court\u2019s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. <\/p>\n
President Isaac Herzog described the warrants as \u201ca dark day for justice. A dark day for humanity.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said in a statement on X that \u201cthe outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that the decision \u201cignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has the duty and right to defend its people. It ignores the fact that Israel is a vibrant democracy, acting under international humanitarian law, and going to great lengths to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population.\u201d <\/p>\n
Recently appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said the ICC acted as a political tool serving the most extreme elements working to undermine peace, security, and stability in the Middle East.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom an ethical perspective, this is a moral aberration that turns good into evil and serves the forces of evil,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a diplomatic perspective, issuing orders against a country acting according to international law is a reward and encouragement for the axis of evil (of Iran-led groups), which flagrantly and consistently violates it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir condemned the ICC as \u201cantisemitic from start to finish,\u201d adding that Israel should respond by \u201capplying sovereignty\u201d to the occupied West Bank and building Jewish settlements in all the territories under Israel\u2019s control. <\/p>\n
Gallant served as defense minister until this month, when Netanyahu fired him after months of clashes over domestic politics and Israel\u2019s war effort. The prime minister said at the time that \u201ctrust between me and the minister of defense has cracked.\u201d Katz, who served as foreign minister until then, became defense minister. <\/p>\n
Eliav Lieblich, a professor of international law at Tel Aviv University, described the ICC\u2019s decision as \u201cthe most dramatic legal development in Israel\u2019s history.\u201d <\/p>\n
There may also be wider implications, he added, which \u201ccould limit the ability of third parties to cooperate with\u201d the Israeli military. <\/p>\n
After an arrest warrant has been issued, the ICC sends requests for cooperation to member states. The court does not have a police force of its own to make the arrests, but relies on member states to execute them, which state parties are legally obliged to do. <\/p>\n
Previous leaders who have been faced with ICC arrest warrants have experienced limitations on their ability to travel, unable to pass through countries legally obliged to arrest them. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}