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Picture courtesy: (REUTERSC) ICC’s Karim Khan seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
In a statement, Karim Khan KC argued that both leaders have criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humankind from the beginning of the launched attack on Israel on October 7.
These crimes were conducted against humankind as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups.
He added that Israel’s prime minister and defence minister were allegedly accused of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, murder, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, and extermination.
Khan announced that his office had evidence to back up the arrest warrants requested that prove Israel had intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.
He also stated that Israel, as needed, has the right to defend itself, but that doesn’t mean it should cause death, starvation, great suffering, or serious injury to the body or health of the population.
Things are indeed heating up as Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, including the group’s military chief Mohammed Deif, are also looking to be arrested. Although arrest warrants are being requested, ICC judges will decide to determine if the evidence is sufficient to approve the warrants.
In a statement, Netanyahu stated that he refused, with disgust, the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, stated that the action by Khan was an uncontrolled frontal assault on those who lost their lives in the war, including victims of the October 7 attacks that will never be forgotten.
He declared that a special command centre would be set up to fight the decision, which he argues was intended to tie Israel’s hands and deny it the right to self-defence.
The arrest warrants were approved against leaders of the Palestinian resistance. Has been demanded to be cancelled by Hamas
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, a political rival of Netanyahu, criticised the prosecutor’s action and argued that the leaders of a democratic country are determined to protect themselves from the leaders of a bloodthirsty terror organisation.
Neither Israel nor Qatar are part of the ICC, but the Palestinian territories were connected as members in 2015. However, with the warrants being requested, the ICC can rely on member countries to issue the arrest.
As yet, no Western-style democracy has had an ICC arrest warrant approved for its leader. This means that if the arrest warrant is approved and Netanyahu becomes the first, it will cause Israel and its allies harm, as well as test the powers and limitations of the ICC.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after the ICC’s request, rejected the announcement, stating that the court didn’t have jurisdiction when it came to the US.
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