ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu, three Hamas leaders

The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against three leaders of Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the October 7 terror attack on Israel and the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.

In a Monday statement, the ICC said it is targeting to secure warrants against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the group’s Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, commander in chief of Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam brigade.

The three Hamas leaders are pursued in connection with alleged crimes committed during Hamas’ October 7 terror attack against Israel, including murder, the taking of hostages and sexual abuse.

The ICC also asked for warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes committed since October during Israel’s retaliatory campaign in the Gaza Strip. The alleged crimes include the starvation of civilians, murder and persecution.

Israel says that its offensive in the Gaza enclave, which it deepened with an incursion in Rafah earlier this month, targets the elimination of Hamas, rather than civilians.

Over 1,200 people have been killed in Israel since October, according to Israel’s prime minister’s office, while the Palestinian Health Ministry indicated over 35,000 people were killed in the Gaza Strip during that period.

Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs declined to comment at this time.

Foreshadowing the ICC filing amid reports of a potential warrant pursuit, Netanyahu said in a speech earlier this month that “this step would put an indelible stain on the very idea of justice and international law” and represent a distortion of history and justice.

Israel is simultaneously defending itself against claims of genocide and attempts to restrict its Gaza campaign in the Hague-based International Court of Justice, which last week heard South Africa’s request for an emergency halt of Israeli operations in Rafah.

Referencing the warrant application, Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on Monday said that “accepting the prosecutor’s position, would be a historical crime that will not go away” in a Google-translated social media post, adding that it places “the leaders of a country that went into battle to protect its citizens, in the same line with bloodthirsty terrorists.”

The ICC decision to pursue arrest warrants for the three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner”, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Monday.

The applications for arrest warrants were filed with an ICC’s pre-trial chamber for review to determine whether the charges can be confirmed. The filing marks a rare international judicial incursion against the leadership of a government allied with the U.S., which, like Israel, is not a state party of the ICC. The ICC holds that it has jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Last year, the ICC proceeded with issuing an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on war crime charges of unlawful deportation of children and their transfer from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia, during Moscow’s war against Kyiv.