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The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, the tribunal in The Hague announced on Thursday afternoon.
The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest,” it confirmed in a statement.
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In a separate statement, the court ordered the arrest of Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of Hamas’s military wing, who according to the Israel Defense Forces was killed in an airstrike on July 13.
The court said it had found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
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The Chamber said that there are also “reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear responsibility for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population,” though it noted that ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan had only provided information about two incidents that the court said were directed against civilians.
The Hague rejected Jerusalem’s challenges regarding jurisdiction, claiming that the court can exercise its authority on the basis of the Palestinian Authority’s membership. It also ruled that countries are not entitled to dispute the ICC’s jurisdiction prior to the issuance of arrest warrants.
Regarding Deif, the court said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that senior leaders of Hamas, comprising of at least Deif, Sinwar, and Haniyeh, agreed to jointly carry out the 7 October 2023 Operation.”
Roughly 1,200 civilians were murdered by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken into the Gaza Strip.
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