In a significant development, the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Thursday, November 21, issued an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Apart from Netanyahu, arrest warrants have been issued against Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
According to the Associated Press, a three-judge panel issued a unanimous judgement stating, “The chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
On May 20, ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had requested the arrest warrants.
Khan stated there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were responsible for causing mass starvation in Gaza, Palestine. This amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, he said.
Khan had also requested the arrest warrant for three Hamas leaders, two of them have been killed since then, for alleged war crimes on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250.
Israel rejects ICC’s order
Meanwhile, Israel has firmly rejected the International Criminal Court’s judgement stating “no war crimes were conducted by the Jewish country.” However, the ICC said that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s order is not required.
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