ICC Chief Pursues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas Leaders
by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that it had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes related to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan stated that charges against Hamas terrorist leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, and Al-Qassam Brigades armed wing head Mohammed Deif will include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention.” He also reiterated his call for “the immediate release of all hostages taken from Israel and for their safe return to their families.”
According to his statement, Khan is also requesting arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of starvation of civilians, extermination, willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
He accused the Israeli leaders of “a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population as a means to (i) eliminate Hamas; (ii) secure the return of the hostages which Hamas has abducted, and (iii) collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza, whom they perceived as a threat to Israel.”
When asked about Netanyahu’s previous comments condemning any potential ICC action as “an outrage,” Khan responded firmly, “Nobody is above the law.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday afternoon that the “scandalous” decision by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to request arrest warrants for Israeli leaders will not prevent Jerusalem from destroying the Hamas terror organization. “It’s a scandal—it won’t stop me or us,” Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem.
However, Khan’s statement noted that “the independent judges of the International Criminal Court are the sole arbiters as to whether the necessary standard for the issuance of warrants of arrest has been met.” A panel of three justices from the ICC’s Pre-Trial Division will now consider Khan’s application for the arrest warrants.
Israel has denied committing war crimes in the Gaza conflict, emphasizing that it has taken extensive measures to prevent civilian casualties. According to Israel, Hamas terrorists embed themselves within Gaza’s civilian population and use civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to conduct operations and launch attacks against Israel.
According to Army Radio political reporter Shahar Glick, a text that will soon be presented to all 120 members of the Knesset states that “the scandalous comparison of the prosecutor in The Hague between Israeli leaders and the heads of the Hamas terrorist organization is an indelible historical crime and a clear expression of antisemitism. The IDF is the most moral army in the world. Our heroic soldiers fight with unparalleled courage and morality, in keeping with international law,” the statement continues, adding, “Eighty years after the Holocaust, no one will tie the hands of the Jewish state as it defends itself.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Monday, “Taken in bad faith, this one-sided move represents a unilateral political step that emboldens terrorists around the world and violates all the basic rules of the court according to the principle of complementarity and other legal norms.”
He described Hamas as “oppressive dictators guilty of launching mass murder, mass rape, and mass kidnappings of men, women, children, and babies.” He emphasized that “any attempt to draw parallels between these atrocious terrorists and a democratically-elected government of Israel working to fulfill its duty to defend and protect its citizens entirely in adherence to the principles of international law is outrageous and cannot be accepted by anyone.”
“We will not forget who started this war and who raped, butchered, burned, brutalized, and kidnapped innocent citizens and families,” Herzog continued. “We will not forget our hostages whose safe return should be the main concern of the international community. We expect all leaders in the free world to condemn outright this step and firmly reject it.”
U.S. Congressmen also expressed outrage over the ICC’s actions.
“Israel is not a member of the ICC, and therefore, the ICC has no jurisdiction. The decision to seek arrest warrants is not law but politics,” wrote Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). “It is not justice but rather retribution against Israel for the original sin of existing as a Jewish state and the subsequent sin of defending itself amid the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.”
The ICC decision “in effect makes it criminal for a state like Israel to defend itself against an enemy shrewd enough to embed itself in a civilian population, as Hamas has done to an extent never seen before in the history of warfare,” Torres said.
“But for Oct. 7 and Hamas’s unprecedented militarization of its own civilian population and infrastructure, there would be no war in Gaza and no humanitarian crisis among Gazans,” Torres added. “Hamas is the cause of everything tragic that has ensued, and Hamas alone should be the target of criminal prosecution.”
“While Israel delivers aid and protects innocent lives, Hamas terrorists take hostages and use children as shields and hospitals as armories,” wrote Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). “The ICC has embarrassed itself with these sham charges against Israel’s leadership. America stands with Israel.”
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, initiated the current war with its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. During their assault across southern Israel, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 others hostage.
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