The International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants against the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant – and also against Hamas leaders, including the head the movement Yahya Sinwar – on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Warrants are also being sought today against two other top Hamas leaders: Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif, and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The charges laid against the Hamas leaders include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.”
The charges laid against the Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the head of the movement, include “extermination”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence” and “taking hostages as a war crime”.
“We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups pursuant to organisational policies,” said the statement.
The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said today that he was seeking warrants against PM Netanyahu and Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including “starvation”, “wilful killing” and “extermination and/or murder”.
“We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy,” said Mr Khan in reference to Netanyahu and Gallant. “These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.”
After Hamas’s deadly incursion into Israel on October 7th when militants killed around 1,200 people, some 250 were also abducted, and around 100 remain as hostages in Gaza.
Israel’s attack on Gaza in response has killed some 35,000 Palestinians while many more have been injured, and more than a third of all buildings in the region have been destroyed or damaged.
While warrants have previously been issued by the ICC against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, and previously against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, this would be the first warrant issued against an ally of the U.S.