Live Updates: I.C.C. Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
"The International Criminal Court rejected Israel’s challenges to its jurisdiction, and also issued a warrant for a top Hamas official. Its chief prosecutor had sought the arrests for war crimes in Gaza.
Pinned
The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the former Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Karim Khan, the court’s chief prosecutor, had requested the arrest warrants in May for the two Israelis, alongside three top Hamas officials. Israel has fiercely contested the court’s allegations, which include the use of starvation as a weapon of war and “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for a single Hamas official — not three as the chief prosecutor had initially sought in May. That’s because two of them have since been killed.
Karim Khan, the court’s chief prosecutor, requested the warrants after investigating Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
The I.C.C.’s arrest warrants were issued as Netanyahu met with a top U.S. official pushing for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The warrants pertained only to Israel’s fight with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but the conflict has expanded since they were first requested in May.
Israeli leaders criticized the decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. “The decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom,” said Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, accusing the court of turning “the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’s crimes against humanity.” Itamar Ben-Gvir, the hardline Israeli national security minister, said Israel should annex the occupied West Bank in response to the court’s decision.
Benny Gantz, an Israeli opposition leader and critic of Netanyahu, slammed the warrants as “a historic disgrace that will never be forgotten.” Many in Israel still see the war in Gaza — launched last year in response to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel — as fundamentally just. While Netanyahu’s opponents have criticized his government’s failure to bring home the hostages taken by Hamas in that attack, there is less criticism over the civilian toll in Gaza.
Israel is not a member of the I.C.C. and does not recognize its jurisdiction in Israel or in Gaza, so Netanyahu and Gallant will not face any risk of arrest at home. But the warrants mean that they could be arrested if they travel to one of the court’s 124 member nations. That includes most European countries, though not the United States.
Israel resumed its bombing campaign on Thursday in the Hezbollah-controlled area south of Beirut, as a top U.S. envoy visited Israel to talk to officials there and try to nail down the terms of a cease-fire between the two warring sides.
Amos Hochstein, the senior Biden administration official, was expected to meet on Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Omer Dostri, the prime minister’s spokesman. A day earlier, Mr. Hochstein wrapped up two days of talks with Lebanese officials and spoke of having made “additional progress” in the quest to end Israel’s yearlong conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah."
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