The ICC rejected challenges made by Israel to the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office in May to charge Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant with committing war crimes against the population of Gaza. A warrant was also issued against Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas official.
The Preliminary Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants this Thursday, November 21, against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former Minister of Defense of that country, Yoav Gallant, for the alleged commission of crimes. of war and crimes against humanity against the population of the Gaza Strip since at least October 2023; when a counterattack began against the Islamic group Hamas for the murder of people during a concert.
“The Chamber has issued arrest warrants against two individuals, Messrs. Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least October 8, 2023 to at least May 20, 2024, the day in which the prosecution submitted applications for arrest warrants,” the ICC said.
In this way, the court in The Hague rejected the challenges made by Israel in September, in which it said that said court did not have jurisdiction over the situation in Gaza and over Israeli citizens. In addition, that country asked to stop procedures related to the conflict, including issuing arrest warrants.
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“It is not necessary for Israel to accept the jurisdiction of the Court, since it can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of the territorial jurisdiction of Palestine, as determined above,” the Chamber warned.
The ICC claims to have “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “are criminally responsible” for the following crimes: “the war crime of using starvation as a method of war,” “crimes against humanity,” including “murder, persecution and other inhuman acts” and the perpetration of “attacks intentionally directed against the civilian population.”
As reported on Thursday by the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government for Gaza, the death toll in the Palestinian territory has reached 44,056 since the start of the war with Israel more than a year ago.
The judges also approved the arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas official considered head of its military wing, although Israel already declared him dead in an Israeli attack last June against the Strip, a death that was never confirmed by the group. Islamist, nor has it been possible for the court’s prosecutor to do so.
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In the Hamas case, prosecutor Karim Khan had called for the arrest of then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar; the head of the military wing, Mohammed Deif; and his political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh. The indictment includes six war crimes, such as hostage-taking and acts of sexual violence, and five crimes against humanity, including extermination and murder.
However, since the prosecutor requested his arrest, Haniyeh was killed in an attack in Tehran in July and his heir, Sinwar, suffered the same fate in another Israeli attack in Gaza last month, so Khan withdrew his request considering confirmed his death.
Regarding Deif, the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that it would continue to collect information about “his alleged death.”
«On November 15, 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office, based on information from the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, informed the Chamber that it cannot determine whether Deif has died or is still alive. Therefore, the Chamber issues this arrest warrant,” the judges noted.
With information from EFE / MundoUR /RFI
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