In a massive legal bombshell, the International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza, an unprecedented step that put the two at risk of being detained in much of the world.
The three judges of the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I issued the warrants unanimously on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, which the court’s top prosecutor Karim Khan alleges were committed during the ongoing war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
The decision marked the first time the ICC has ever issued arrest warrants against leaders of a democratic country.
Both Netanyahu and Gallant will be liable for arrest if they travel to any of the more than 120 countries that are party to the ICC.
The court also issued a warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed by an IDF strike in Gaza in July. Khan had sought arrest warrants for Deif and slain Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar for the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
Turning Netanyahu and Gallant, who was dismissed from his post as defense minister earlier this month, into internationally wanted suspects will likely further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month conflict. But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and the United States are not party to the court, and the warrant has no enforcement mechanism.
The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic.
US President Joe Biden also blasted the ICC prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. This week, incoming Senate majority leader John Thune threatened to push sanctions against the court if it issued the warrants.
Khan sought the warrants on charges that Israel has targeted civilians in Gaza and used starvation as a method of war.
“The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity,” the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel strongly rejects the accusations, pointing to the relatively low civilian-to-combatant ratio among the casualties in Gaza and the terror group’s use of civilians as human shields, while highlighting its own efforts to expand humanitarian aid into the enclave despite regular looting by gangs and terror groups.
The court dismissed warrants against Sinwar and Haniyeh, who have both been killed since Khan made the request. But it pushed ahead with the measure against Deif, apparently unconvinced that the shadowy head of Hamas’s armed wing is truly dead.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction by asserting that Israel has a robust and independent legal system that is able to self-investigate such claims.
Israel argued that the court did not provide Jerusalem the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting the warrants.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like that which exists in Israel has been treated in this prejudicial manner by the Prosecutor,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X at the time. He said Israel remained “steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice” and would continue to protect its citizens against militancy.
Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague any time soon. The court itself has no police to enforce warrants, instead relying on cooperation from its member states.
Times of Israel staff and Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.