The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister and a Hamas military commander for alleged war crimes.
Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were accused of “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024”, a statement from the court said on Thursday.
There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Gallant and Netanyahu “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”, it said.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC”, adding that Israel won’t “give in to pressure” in the defence of its citizens.
The court also decided “unanimously” to issue an arrest warrant for Hamas’s military commander Mohammed al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, “for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed” in Israel and Palestine from October 7, 2023.
It accused him of crimes including murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israel claims to have killed Deif in an air raid in southern Gaza in July. But the court decided to proceed with the warrant, saying it was “not in a position to determine whether [he] has been killed or remains alive”.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan had applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli officials and three Hamas leaders in May for alleged crimes committed during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza.
ICC prosecutors said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant – as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Deif – bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran in July. Sinwar was killed in combat with the Israeli military in October.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this month, saying he had lost confidence in him over the management of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel calls ICC ruling ‘antisemitic’
Israel is not a member of the ICC and Netanyahu has previously called the prosecutor’s accusations against him a “disgrace”, an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.
But the ICC said on Thursday that it had unanimously decided to reject Israel’s appeal over the court’s jurisdiction.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said, “Israel did its best to discredit the ICC. It tried to challenge its jurisdiction … and Israeli politicians internally were doing everything they could to fight [the potential ruling].”
The Israeli prime minister’s office has called the ICC’s issuance of an arrest warrant against Netanyahu “antisemitic”.
A statement from the office on Thursday, also equates the decision to a “modern-day Dreyfus trial”, referring to an incident in France around the turn of the 20th century in which a French military man of Jewish descent was wrongfully convicted of treason.
“No anti-Israel decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens. The PM will not succumb to pressure, will not be deterred, and will not retreat until all the war objectives set by Israel at the start of the campaign are achieved”, the statement continues.
“Israel vehemently rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body”.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also condemned the court’s decision, characterising Israel’s war on Gaza as a fight for its life “against terrorist organisations”.
Former Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman posted on social media platform X that Israel “will not apologise for protecting its citizens and is committed to continuing to fight terrorism without compromise”.
People in Gaza ‘skeptical’ about ICC ruling
Hamas has welcomed the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister as an “important step towards justice”.
“[It is] an important step towards justice and can lead to redress for the victims in general, but it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said in a statement.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara praised the court’s decision to issue the long-awaited arrest warrants, saying “at last, the people of Gaza, after a year of unfolding genocide, might be able to see their perpetrators face justice”.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that within the enclave, people have taken the news of the arrest warrants “with a grain of salt.”
“It is taken with a little bit of skepticism… again, we know the unwavering American support (to Israel). In fact at some point it felt…it is actually the US..that is carrying out this genocide in the Gaza strip,” he said.
“So people are very suspicious of the outcome of this arrest warrant and say that it might be challenged by the US administration, whether it is the old one or the new which has also vowed support to Israeli officials.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Thursday that Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 44,056 Palestinians and wounded 104,286 since October 7, 2023.
What next?
Neve Gordan, international law professor told Al Jazeera that the signatories of the Rome Statute and members of the ICC are bound to arrest Gallant and Netanyahu if they travel to their country.
“But I think that by issuing the arrest warrants, the ICC has also made a certain demand on Western countries both in North America and throughout Europe,” he said.
“And that has to do with the kind of trade agreements that they have with Israel – first and foremost with the trade relating to arms,” he noted.
“If the leaders of Israel are charged with carrying out crimes against humanity by the ICC, it means that the weapons the European countries are sending to Israel are used to carry out crimes against humanity and they have to reassess all their trade of weapons with Israel from today and, I would say, stop sending these weapons,” Gordon continued.
So far, the Netherlands has become the first nation that has said it is prepared to act upon the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Netanyahu if needed, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
“The Netherlands implements the Rome Statute 100 percent,” foreign minister foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said.