ICC issues arrest warrant against Israeli PM Netanyahu, its former defense minister and Hamas commander

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’ military commander Mohammed Deif, accusing them of “war crimes.” 

In their ruling, ICC judges stated there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies” and the alleged crimes against humanity “were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”

Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks on Israel, is charged with mass killings, rape and taking of hostages during last year’s attack that triggered the Gaza war. According to Israel, he was killed in July during an airstrike.

Close to 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, and many are feared dead.

Netanyahu’s response

Netanyahu asserts that Israel would reject the legitimacy of the ICC’s decision. 

Referring to a high-profile case of antisemitism in France over a century ago, in a statement on Thursday, Netanyahu said, “The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.”

Neither Israel nor the US, its major ally, is a member of the ICC that has 124 member states.

Israel is also the subject of a separate case before the ICC, that of genocide in Gaza.

War outcomes

About 10,000 people lost their lives [over 3,000 of them were children] in three weeks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,200 dead.

And in over a year, as many as 16,930 children had been killed in Israel’s military actions against Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank. The tragic situation averaged over 45 child fatalities each day. 

The total number of Palestinian fatalities had reached 43,359 by October 20, 2024. The number of wounded corresponded to 106,045.