The International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, it said in a statement yesterday,.
The ICC is also seeking arrest warrants for the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, and its chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, along with the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Diab Al-Masri (known as Mohammed Al-Deif).
In a statement released on its website, the ICC’s Prosecutor Karim Khan said: “Today I am filing applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in the Situation in the State of Palestine.”
Adding that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023.”
The war crimes listed include “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”; “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population”; “extermination and/or murder … including in the context of deaths caused by starvation”; “persecution as a crime against humanity”, among others.
“My Office submits that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery and statements from the alleged perpetrator group, shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival,” Khan added.
“This occurred through the imposition of a total siege over Gaza,” which, he explained, was “part of a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population.”
“Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza – namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population – are criminal,” he continued.
Source: Middle East Monitor
