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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, as well as Hamas's military commander for alleged war crimes.
A statement said a pre-trial chamber had rejected Israel’s challenges to the court’s jurisdiction and issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. A warrant was also issued for Mohammed Deif, although the Israeli military has said he was killed in an air strike in Gaza in July.
The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations.
The Israeli prime minister’s office condemned the ICC’s decision as “antisemitic”, while Hamas said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant set an "important historical precedent".
It will now be up to the ICC's 124 member states - which do not include Israel or its ally, the United States - to decide whether or not to enforce the warrants.
In May, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have since been killed, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.
The prosecutor's case against them stems from the events of 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
According to the ICC, the chamber “found reasonable grounds to believe” that Deif was “responsible for the crimes against humanity of 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”.
For Netanyahu and Gallant, who was replaced as defense minister earlier this month, the chamber “found reasonable grounds to believe” that they “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the chamber’s decision “outrageous”, and said the ICC had “turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock”.
