Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In a significant development, the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Thursday, November 21, issued an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Apart from Netanyahu, arrest warrants have been issued against Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
According to the Associated Press, a three-judge panel issued a unanimous judgement stating, “The chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
On May 20, ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had requested the arrest warrants.
Khan stated there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were responsible for causing mass starvation in Gaza, Palestine. This amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, he said.
Khan had also requested the arrest warrant for three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250. Two of them have been killed since then.
So far Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed atleast 44,000 Palestinians with a majority being women and children. Latest reports suggest around 17,000 children have perished in the onslaught. Additionally, around 1,04,000 Palestinians have been reported injured.
Meanwhile, Israel has firmly rejected ICC’s judgement stating “no war crimes were conducted by the Jewish country.” However, the ICC said that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s order is not required.
This post was last modified on November 21, 2024 6:54 pm