ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes over October 7 attack and Gaza

CNN
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The Worldwide Felony Courtroom is looking for arrest warrants for Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on prices of struggle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity over the October 7 assaults on Israel and the next struggle in Gaza, the courtroom’s prosecutor Karim Khan informed CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an unique interview on Monday.

Khan mentioned the ICC’s prosecution workforce can also be looking for warrants for Israel’s Protection Minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to two different high Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the chief of the Al Qassem Brigades who’s higher referred to as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief.

The warrants in opposition to the Israeli politicians mark the primary time the ICC has focused the highest chief of a detailed ally of the US. The choice places Netanyahu within the firm of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over Moscow’s struggle on Ukraine, and the Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who was going through an arrest warrant from the ICC for alleged crimes in opposition to humanity on the time of his seize and killing in October 2011.

By making use of for the arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli and Hamas leaders in the identical motion, Khan’s workplace dangers attracting criticism that it locations a terror group and an elected authorities on an equal footing.

A panel of ICC judges will now contemplate Khan’s software for the arrest warrants.

Khan mentioned the costs in opposition to Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri embrace “extermination, homicide, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.”

“The world was shocked on the seventh of October when individuals had been ripped from their bedrooms, from their properties, from the completely different kibbutzim in Israel,” Khan informed Amanpour, including that “individuals have suffered enormously.”

Hamas-led militants killed round 1,200 individuals throughout a number of areas in southern Israel on October 7 and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. Most of the hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza – Khan informed Amanpour this meant crimes continued to be dedicated in opposition to “so many harmless Israelis … which can be held hostage by Hamas and households which can be ready for his or her return.”

Khan informed Amanpour his workforce has a “number of proof” to assist the applying for arrest warrants in opposition to Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri, together with authenticated video footage and images from the assaults in addition to proof from eyewitnesses and survivors.

Khan mentioned Israel had “each proper and certainly an obligation to get hostages again, however you need to achieve this by complying with the regulation.”

Responding to the announcement by Khan, Hamas mentioned in a press release that it “strongly condemns the makes an attempt of the ICC Prosecutor to equate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants in opposition to various Palestinian resistance leaders with out authorized foundation.”

“Hamas calls on the ICC Prosecutor to situation arrest warrants in opposition to all struggle criminals among the many occupation leaders, officers, and troopers who participated in crimes in opposition to the Palestinian individuals, and calls for the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued in opposition to Palestinian resistance leaders,” the group added.

‘No person is above the regulation’

The fees in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant embrace “inflicting extermination, inflicting hunger as a technique of struggle, together with the denial of humanitarian aid provides, intentionally focusing on civilians in battle,” Khan informed Amanpour.

“The truth that Hamas fighters want water doesn’t justify denying water from all of the civilian inhabitants of Gaza,” he added.

Greater than 35,500 Palestinians have been killed and greater than 79,000 wounded in Gaza since October 7, the Ministry of Well being in Gaza mentioned on Monday. CNN can’t independently confirm the figures.

Netanyahu referred to as the choice “a political outrage.”

“They won’t deter us and we’ll proceed within the struggle till the hostages are launched and Hamas is destroyed,” he mentioned at a gathering of the parliamentary group of his Likud occasion.

Different Israeli officers echoed his sentiments. Benny Gantz, a member Israel’s struggle cupboard, criticized Khan’s choice instantly after it was introduced, saying that Israel was preventing “with one of many strictest ethical codes in historical past, whereas complying with worldwide regulation and boasting a strong impartial judiciary.”

“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic nation decided to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation is a deep distortion of justice and blatant ethical chapter,” he mentioned, including that the choice by the prosecutors “is in itself a criminal offense of historic proportion to be remembered for era.”

The chief of the opposition, Yair Lapid, mentioned the applying for the arrest warrents was “a whole ethical failure.”

“We can’t settle for the outrageous comparability between Netanyahu and Sinwar … We is not going to stay silent,” he mentioned.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog referred to as it “past outrageous.”

When stories surfaced final month that the ICC chief prosecutor was contemplating this plan of action, Netanyahu mentioned that any ICC arrest warrants in opposition to senior Israeli authorities and army officers “can be an outrage of historic proportions,” and that Israel “has an impartial authorized system that rigorously investigates all violations of the regulation.”

Requested by Amanpour in regards to the feedback made by Netanyahu, Khan mentioned: “No person is above the regulation.”

He mentioned that if Israel disagrees with the ICC, “they’re free, however their objections to jurisdiction, to lift a problem earlier than the judges of the courtroom and that’s what I counsel them to do.”

Israel and the US should not members of the ICC. Nevertheless, the ICC claims to have jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Financial institution after Palestinian leaders formally agreed to be certain by the courtroom’s founding ideas in 2015.

The ICC announcement on Monday is separate from the case that’s at present being heard by the the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) over an accusation from South Africa that Israel was committing genocide in its struggle in opposition to Hamas following the October 7 assaults.

Whereas the ICJ considers circumstances that contain international locations and nations, and the ICC is a prison courtroom, which brings circumstances in opposition to people for struggle crimes or crimes in opposition to humanity.

Monday’s announcement shouldn’t be the primary time that the ICC acted in relation to Israel. In March 2021, Khan’s workplace launched an investigation into attainable crimes dedicated within the Palestinian territories since June 2014 in Gaza and the West Financial institution.

Situated in The Hague, Netherlands, and created by a treaty referred to as the Rome Statute first introduced earlier than the United Nations, the ICC operates independently. Most international locations – 124 of them – are events to the treaty, however there are notable exceptions, together with Israel, the US and Russia.

That signifies that if the courtroom grants Khan’s software and points arrest warrants for the 5 males, any nation that may be a member must arrest them and extradite them to The Hague.

Underneath the foundations of the courtroom, all signatories of the Rome Statute have the duty to cooperate totally with its selections. This may make it extraordinarily tough for Netanyahu and Gallant to journey internationally, together with to many international locations which can be amongst Israel’s closest allies – together with Germany and the UK.

Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri have been formally designated as world terrorists by the US, which means they’re beneath journey bans, asset freezes and sanctions. The US, the UK, Japan, Canada in addition to the European Union and others have designated Hamas as a terror group and imposed sanctions on its leaders.

This story has been up to date with extra developments.