ICC prosecutor seeks spread of arrest warrants implicating Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas’ Haniyeh, Sinwar, Deif

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan requested on Monday that the court issue arrest warrants for leaders of both the Israeli government and Hamas.

The step represents a historic move to press charges against Israeli leaders for crimes committed against Palestinians, three years after the court launched its investigation into the situation in Palestine.

In his statement, Khan accused Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, and Qassam Brigades commander Mohamed Deif of responsibility for the crimes of extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape and other acts of sexual violence, torture, cruel treatment and other inhumane acts during and following the October 7 operation.

On the Israeli side, the statement accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yaov Gallant of the crimes of starvation of civilians, willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, persecution, extermination and/or murder, and other inhumane acts since at least October 8.

“Today’s applications are the outcome of an independent and impartial investigation by my Office,” Khan said in the statement, noting that the office continues to pursue “multiple and interconnected additional lines of inquiry, including concerning reports of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks, and in relation to the large-scale bombing that has caused and continues to cause so many civilian deaths, injuries, and suffering in Gaza.”

The warrant request is a positive development, the leading counsel of the Arab Lawyers Union legal team representing Palestinian victims before the ICC, Yasser Hassan, told Mada Masr, in that it finally names those accused of war crimes committed in Palestine so many years after the start of the investigation and supports its charges with the opinions of human rights experts and UN officials.

The Palestinian Authority first requested in 2015 that the ICC look into crimes perpetrated in Palestine by Israel, with the court deciding in 2021 that it had jurisdiction to look into crimes committed in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014 and officially launching its investigation into “the Situation in the State of Palestine.”

While only two Israeli officials are named alongside the three Hamas officials, Hassan noted that Khan said he is willing to submit “further applications for warrants of arrest” in the future.

However, Hassan criticized Khan for having personally gone to meet with and listen to the Israelis about the October 7 operation, while overlooking Palestinian victims of the Israeli onslaught, even those who were able to get out of Gaza for treatment in Egypt or the UAE. While the prosecutor’s statement bases its charges against Israeli leaders on starvation, aid blockage and the targeting of civilians, he added, it fails to mention other aspects of war crimes committed in Gaza — such as the destruction of hospitals, mosques and infrastructure, and the targeting of ambulances and international humanitarian workers, among other violations — as well as crimes within Israel’s jurisdiction that took place before October 7.

If the court accepts the request for warrants, it could have substantial consequences for Israeli officials. Israel is not a member state of the International Criminal Court, and has often levied a charge of bias against UN bodies. If arrest warrants are issued, however, Israeli officials could face the risk of arrest if they travel to any of the 124 countries that are members of the ICC.

Hassan also noted that the prosecutor situated the war crimes in the context of “an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine,” which, for Hassan, carries within it a recognition of Palestine as an independent state and an acknowledgement of a decades-long conflict with Israel that has involved other states in the region over the years.