The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for top Hamas and Israeli figures on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
If approved by a panel of judges, the arrest warrants would be issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Warrants are also being sought for three top Hamas officials: Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, political chief Ismail Haniyah, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of Hamas\u2019 armed wing, who is better known as Mohammed Deif. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know about the ICC cases and what they mean for Israel and Hamas. <\/p>\n
The decision to seek arrest warrants doesn\u2019t immediately mean the individual is guilty, but is the first stage in a process that could lead to a lengthy trial. <\/p>\n
If the court finds sufficient evidence of crimes, it can summon the suspect to appear voluntarily. The court can also issue an arrest warrant, relying on member countries to make the arrest and transfer the suspect to the ICC. <\/p>\n
If the suspect appears before the court, a pre-trial takes place in which the court decides if there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. Then there is a trial before three ICC judges, in which the prosecution must prove \u201cbeyond reasonable doubt\u201d that the individual is guilty of the crimes. <\/p>\n
Once a verdict passes, the charged individual may be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Under exceptional circumstances, a life sentence can also be given, the court says. <\/p>\n
The ICC has so far issued arrest warrants against 42 people, 21 of whom have been detained with the help of member states. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe immediate problem for Israeli officials under any ICC arrest warrant would be that the court\u2019s 124 member states would be under a legal obligation to arrest such officials if they traveled to any of those 124 countries,\u201d Chile Eboe-Osuji, a former ICC president, wrote this month in Foreign Policy magazine. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat obligation should not be underestimated,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cjust last year, Putin canceled his plans to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa, in the apparent light of Pretoria\u2019s obligation to arrest him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Of Hamas leaders for whom arrest warrants are sought, two \u2013 Sinwar and Deif \u2013 are believed to be in Gaza, while Haniyah resides in Qatar, which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. <\/p>\n
Headquartered at The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICC was established in 2002 and is tasked with prosecuting individuals for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. <\/p>\n
Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ICC is not an organ of the United Nations and does not prosecute states. <\/p>\n
While the ICC is independent of the UN, it is endorsed by the UN\u2019s General Assembly and maintains a cooperation agreement with the UN. When a case is not within the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction, the UN Security Council can refer that case to the ICC, granting it jurisdiction. <\/p>\n
The court can investigate alleged crimes committed on the territory, or by a national, of any state that has accepted the court\u2019s jurisdiction by signing the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. Any member state can ask the ICC\u2019s prosecutor to launch an investigation. <\/p>\n
The court has previously issued arrest warrants against high-ranking individuals, including former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, Saif Gadhafi, the son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin. <\/p>\n
Signatory states are obliged to apprehend those facing arrest warrants, but leaders have often sought to evade those warrants, restricting their freedom of movement. <\/p>\n
The ICC does not have its own enforcement mechanism and has relied on countries\u2019 support for arrests. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza were referred to the ICC by five countries \u2013 South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti \u2013 in November, calling on the court to investigate the possible crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, among others, in the Palestinian territories, and asked it to determine whether \u201cone or more specific persons should be charged.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC as it hasn\u2019t signed the Rome Statute. But that doesn\u2019t mean its citizens cannot be prosecuted by the court. <\/p>\n
The court had already been investigating possible crimes committed by Israel since 2014 in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. The investigation began in March 2021, and was referred to the court by the Palestinian Authority, which adopted the ICC\u2019s mandate in 2015 as the State of Palestine. The ICC concluded then that it has jurisdiction on the conflict and, \u201cby majority, that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.\u201d <\/p>\n
That investigation, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said, \u201cis ongoing and extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on 7 October 2023.\u201d <\/p>\n
Remarks by Netanyahu this month pointed to anxiety about the ICC probe. Issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials would leave an \u201cindelible stain\u201d on the edifice of international law and justice, Netanyahu said, adding that the ICC was \u201cfounded as a consequence of the Holocaust\u201d and should not attempt to \u201cundermine\u201d Israel\u2019s fundamental right to self-defense. <\/p>\n
The ICC action comes as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a different court in The Hague, considers a case brought by South Africa in which Israel is accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel recognizes the ICJ. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, prompted by the October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 others hostage, has dragged on for nearly eight months. <\/p>\n
More than 35,000 people have been killed during Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities. Swathes of the territory have been reduced to rubble and more than half of its population of 2.3 million has been internally displaced. Famine has set in in parts of the strip. <\/p>\n
Palestinian leaders signed up to the Rome Statute in 2015. As such, the ICC has jurisdiction over actors in Gaza and other Palestinian territories and by extension, over actors in those territories, including Hamas. <\/p>\n
ICC prosecutor Khan confirmed this in October, saying alleged crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, or by Hamas in Israel, fall under the court\u2019s jurisdiction, Reuters reported. <\/p>\n
This means the court can indict Hamas leaders over possible crimes committed against both Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n
Shelly Aviv Yeini, head of the international law department at the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum, said the ICC could make Hamas accountable for crimes even if the state of Israel does not recognize the authority of the court. <\/p>\n
ICC prosecutor Khan said Monday he is seeking the warrants \u201con the basis of evidence collected and examined by my office,\u201d and thanked families of the hostages \u201cfor their courage in coming forward to provide their accounts.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Article 15 of the ICC Rome Statue, any individual, group, or organization can file complaints of potential crimes to the court. <\/p>\n
Both Hamas and Israeli politicians denounced the ICC\u2019s move. <\/p>\n
Hamas said it was an attempt to \u201cequate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders without legal basis.\u201d The militant group said warrant requests for Netanyahu and Gallant had come \u201cseven months late,\u201d referring to the duration of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Israeli politicians across the political spectrum condemned the decision. Foreign Minister Israel Katz called it a \u201cscandalous decision\u201d and an \u201cunrestrained frontal attack on the victims of October 7 and our 128 hostages in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, called it \u201ca complete moral failure\u201d and said Israel \u201ccannot accept the outrageous comparison between Netanyahu and Sinwar.\u201d <\/p>\n
The right-wing minister for National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, accused the ICC of antisemitism and called for an escalation of attacks against Hamas, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: \u201cWe have not seen such a show of hypocrisy and hatred of Jews as that of the Hague Tribunal since Nazi propaganda.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the US, meanwhile, President Joe Biden has denounced the ICC prosecutor\u2019s move, calling it \u201coutrageous.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence \u2014 none \u2014 between Israel and Hamas,\u201d the president wrote. \u201cWe will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.\u201d <\/p>\n
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US \u201cfundamentally rejects\u201d the ICC prosecutor\u2019s announcement and warned it could \u201cjeopardize\u201d efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe reject the prosecutor\u2019s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,\u201d Blinken said in a statement. <\/p>\n
He questioned \u201cthe legitimacy and credibility of this investigation,\u201d and said the US believed the ICC to have \u201cno jurisdiction over this matter.\u201d <\/p>\n
The US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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