International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands, unanimously issued warrants of arrest on November 21 for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, while rejecting Israel's challenges to the Court's jurisdiction.
The Chamber ruled on two requests Israel had submitted on September 26, 2024, under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute, and found that Israel's acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction was not required, since the Court can exercise jurisdiction on the basis of Palestine's territorial jurisdiction. The warrants cover crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least October 8, 2023 until at least May 20, 2024, the day the Prosecution filed its applications.
The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant each bear criminal responsibility, as co-perpetrators, for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts, and, as civilian superiors, for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population. It said the two had intentionally and knowingly deprived Gaza's civilian population of objects indispensable to survival, including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity, and that the resulting conditions had caused civilian deaths, including children dying of malnutrition and dehydration, and had forced doctors to operate and carry out amputations, including on children, without anaesthetics.
The warrants are classified as secret in order to protect witnesses and safeguard the investigations; the Chamber said it released the information because conduct similar to that addressed in the warrants appeared to be ongoing, and because it was in the interest of victims and their families to know of the warrants. On the same day, the Court also issued a warrant of arrest for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Deif, the Hamas military commander, over crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, extermination, torture and hostage-taking. (Source: International Criminal Court)
Source: International Criminal Court
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于荷兰海牙的国际刑事法院（ICC）总部大楼。OSeveno 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Headquarters building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo by OSeveno, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
