*Application For Arrest Warrants Against Israeli Leaders Outrageous, Says Biden

*Netanyahu Denounces Bid To Arrest Him Over Gaza War

*Hamas denounces ‘ICC Prosecutor‘s Attempts To Equate Victim With Executioner‘

BY GODWIN IJEDIOGOR (With agency reports)

THE Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and top Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Khan said he was seeking warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defence 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. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day,” Khan said in reference to Netanyahu and Gallant.

The charges against the Hamas leaders, including its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and the group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, 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,” Khan added in the statement.

The ICC prosecutor, in 2021 opened a probe into Israel, Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, saying this investigation now “extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on October 7, 2023.”

He had on several occasions called for the release of all hostages in Gaza, warning against Israeli military action in Rafah.

“All wars have rules and the laws applicable to armed conflict cannot be interpreted so as to render them hollow or devoid of meaning.

“This has been my consistent message, including from Ramallah last year. Since that time, I have not seen any discernible change in conduct by Israel,” he said in February this year.
    The court in January also said it was investigating potential crimes against journalists since the outbreak of hostilities, with legal experts telling AFP at the time that Hamas and Israel could face war crimes charges over the conflict.

“Today, we once again underline that international law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all. No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader, no one, can act with impunity,” the prosecutor stated.

If granted, the warrant means that technically any of the 124 ICC member states would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he travelled there.

But while the warrant could complicate some travel for Netanyahu, the court has no mechanism to enforce its warrants, as it only relies on its members to effect such arrests.

Rumours that the court was about to take action had circulated for weeks, prompting Netanyahu to publish his reaction beforehand, saying Israel would “never accept” the ICC’s “outrageous” rulings. “We will not bow to it,”  he said in a message on X.

Five countries, in mid-November, called for an ICC probe into the Israel-Hamas war, with Khan saying his team had gathered a “significant volume” of evidence on “relevant incidents.”

But ICC teams have not been able to enter Gaza or investigate in Israel, which is not an ICC member.

Nevertheless, Khan visited Israel in November “at the request” of survivors of the October 7 Hamas attacks and then travelled to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to meet senior Palestinian officials.

Commencing sitting in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only independent court set up to probe the gravest offences, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is a “court of last resort” and only steps in if countries are unwilling or unable to investigate cases themselves.

It hit the headlines in March last year when it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

The court also issued a warrant against Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, on similar charges.

Netanyahu has angrily condemned Khan for seeking arrest warrants for him alongside Hamas’ leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict, saying he rejected with disgust that “democratic Israel” had been compared to what he called “mass murderers.

“The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically-elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court.”

His comments have been echoed by United States (US) President, Joe Biden, who said there was no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. 

On Monday, May 20, Biden said there was “no equivalence- none- between Israel and Hamas. The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous.”

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, re-echoed the president’s condemnation, saying Washington “fundamentally rejects” the move, calling it “shameful” and insisting “ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter.”

Blinken also suggested that the request for arrest warrants would jeopardise ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.

   But the ICC said the alleged crimes began “from at least October 7, 2023” in the Hamas leaders’ case, when the group launched its attack on Israel, and “from at least October 8, 2023” for the Israeli leaders.

It  defended its stance, saying despite “significant efforts,” it had not received “any information that has demonstrated genuine action at the domestic level (in Israel) to address the crimes alleged or the individuals under investigation.”

A panel of Judges at the ICC must now consider whether to issue the warrants and, if they do, countries signed up to the ICC statute are obliged to arrest the men if they have such an opportunity.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, condemned the application to seek his arrest as “an absurd and false order.” In a public statement in Hebrew, he asked “with what audacity” the ICC would “dare to compare” Hamas and Israel, saying the comparison was a “distortion of reality.”

He accused the prosecutor of “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, called Khan’s move an “unrestrained frontal assault” on the victims of the October 7 attacks and a “historical disgrace that will be remembered forever.”

Hamas earlier made its own demand for “the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance,” adding: “Hamas strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner.”

The group also complained that the application for warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant had come “seven months late” and that other Israeli political and military leaders had not been named alongside them.