ICC Filing Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant over War Crimes in Gaza
They are filed against the regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war minister Yoav Gallant, on the grounds that they have committed war crimes in their aggression on Gaza.
The charges leveled against them include intentional starvation, extermination, and persecution.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said on Sunday that there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip from at least October 8, 2023:
- Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime
- Willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health
- Willful killing or murder as a war crime
- Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime
- Extermination and/or murder, including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity
- Persecution as a crime against humanity
- Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice has welcomed the ICC chief prosecutor’s move.
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“I’m pleased to see that the law is now occupying the place it should,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Until now, politics has been suspected of holding back the application of the law and in a way that’s been very unsatisfactory – now the law is saying it’s going to play its part, so that’s a good thing,” he said.
At least 35,456 people have been killed and 79,476 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attack is 1,139, with dozens still held captive.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
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The Israeli attacks have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
Source: Al Jazeera
