By Our Reporter

 

WORLD

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar for war crimes.

 

Karim Khan KC said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

 

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with the group’s military chief Mohammed Deif are also wanted for arrest.

 

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

 

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

 

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz – a political rival of Mr Netanyahu – denounced the prosecutor’s decision.

 

“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” he posted on X.

 

ICC judges will now determine whether they believe the evidence is sufficient to issue arrest warrants.

 

The timeframe can vary, with weeks and even months sometimes elapsing between the point at which the ICC prosecutor requests an arrest warrant, and judges ruling on it.

 

Israel’s Gantz: ICC prosecutor’s move is a crime of historic proportions

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has denounced the application for arrest warrants against his country’s prime minister and defence minister by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as “a crime of historic proportion”.

“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” Gantz said.

·         A very good move in the right direction’

Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice has welcomed the ICC chief prosecutor’s move.

“I’m pleased to see that the law is now occupying the place it should,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Until now, politics has been suspected of holding back the application of the law and in a way that’s been very unsatisfactory – now the law is saying  it’s going to play its part, so that’s a good thing,” he said.

Nice called it “a very good move in the right direction” but cautioned that the arrest warrants have not been issued yet.

“Don’t prejudge the issue, it’s an application for arrest warrants by Mr Khan in respect to people on both sides and we wait for the judges decision whether to confirm or not,” he said.

Hamas official: ICC prosecutor’s decision ‘equates the victim with the executioner’

The decision by the ICC prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner”, a senior Hamas official told the Reuters news agency.

Sami Abu Zuhri also said the ICC decision gives encouragement to Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.