The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of a string of human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip, where local health officials said the death toll from the Israeli military's yearlong assault on the Palestinian enclave had now passed 44,000.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Getty Images
Israel responded furiously to the warrants, with Netanyahu's office branding the decision "antisemitic," rejecting the charges as "absurd and false" and condemning the ICC as a "biased and discriminatory political body."
Hamas welcomed the warrants as an "important step towards justice" but senior political official Basem Naim said the court's decision "remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world to implement it."
A spokesperson for the National Security Council said the U.S. “fundamentally rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials," and it was "deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision."
Both Israel and the United States do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, which has no police to enforce its warrants. But the warrants do put the Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe.
In its announcement Thursday the ICC rejected challenges from Israel to its jurisdiction. It said the warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant were related to "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October, 2023 until at least 20 May, 2024," including "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."
It also said reasonable grounds were found to believe they bore criminal responsibility as "civilian superiors" for the war crime of "intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population."
Netanyahu and Gallant were accused of having "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 ICC said it further found that their conduct had hampered the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential items to those in desperate need in the enclave.
NBC News has reached out to Gallant’s office and the State Department for comment.
astral34 on November 21st, 2024 at 14:33 UTC »
This is Europe’s chance to prove that we still believe in multilateralism and the rule based order, even when it’s our allies getting the sentencing
kiss_a_spider on November 21st, 2024 at 14:08 UTC »
Rep. Mike Waltz on X:
Don't think the ICC's warrant means much these days. Meanwhile tough days ahead for the UN and its in-house terror organization UNRWA.
nbcnews on November 21st, 2024 at 12:36 UTC »
The international court's Pre-Trial Chamber rejected challenges from Israel to its jurisdiction, announcing that it had issued warrants for both Netanyahu and Gallant, whom the Israeli prime minister fired just last month, over the country's assault on the Gaza Strip.
The development came as the death toll in the Palestinian enclave passed 44,000, including thousands of children, according to local officials.
Israel launched its deadly offensive following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks in which Israeli officials said some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage, marking a major escalation in the decadeslong conflict.