The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, and others for war crimes related to Israel’s war in Gaza and Hamas’s attack on October 7, according to the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
Arrest warrants are also being sought for Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant and two other senior Hamas officials, Khan told CNN on Monday. Among the senior Hamas figures included are Al-Qassam Brigades head Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz vowed to fight the warrants against Israel’s leaders by forming a special committee and working with world leaders to ensure the warrants are not enforced. Katz called the ICC move a “historic disgrace that will be remembered forever.” Israel is not a member of the court.
The announcement was made as Khan filed applications for the arrest warrants, he said in an ICC statement. The decision comes weeks after the international tribunal, located in The Hague, Netherlands, threatened to issue warrants for Netanyahu. This marks the first time that the ICC has targeted the top leader of a key U.S. ally.
Last year, the court issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin regarding his military’s ongoing offensive against Ukraine.
The court’s independent judges will now consider Khan’s applications for the arrest warrants.
The charges against Sinwar, al-Masri, and Haniyeh include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention,” Khan said, referring to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
He condemned the massacre that left over 1,100 people dead and called for the immediate return of all hostages, but added Israel should be held accountable for its actions too.
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” according to Khan.
Israel is being targeted because of its military campaign in Gaza, where over 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have been displaced from their homes. Humanitarian aid in Gaza continues to be an issue, though Israel has taken steps to alleviate the crisis in recent months.
“Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law,” the ICC chief prosecutor said. “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.”
In the weeks prior to the warrant applications, Netanyahu warned the ICC against pursuing this course of action, saying it “would be an outrage of historic proportions” and adding that Israel “has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law.”
On Monday, Khan responded directly to Netanyahu’s comments: “Nobody is above the law.”