According to Reuters, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity against Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision follows ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s May 20 announcement that he was requesting arrest warrants for suspected crimes related to Tel Aviv’s military operation in Gaza and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“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, AP reported.
The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.
Israel has denied war crimes in Gaza and has rejected the jurisdiction of the ICC. Hamas claims to have killed Al-Masri in airstrike, but the claims have not been confirmed or denied.
Israel is not a member state of the court and has struggled to investigate itself in the past. The Israel-Hamas conflict has resulted in at least 44,056 deaths since October 7, 2023, with 71 deaths in the past 24 hours. The war began when Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 civilians and abducting another 250.
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Source: HT
