ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM and Hamas officials for war crimes

By Guardian - Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem - 20 May 2024 13.26

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Karim Khan said his office has applied to the world court’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for the military and political leaders on both sides for crimes committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.

He named Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, considered to be the masterminds of the 7 October assault, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, who is based in Qatar, as wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

“The world was shocked on 7 October when people were ripped from their homes, from their bedrooms in different kibbutzim … people have suffered enormously,” Khan told CNN on Monday. “We have a variety of evidence to support the applications we’ve submitted to the judges.”

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.

“These acts demand accountability,” Khan’s office said in a statement.

The ICC has previously issued warrants for the Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, but no leader of a “western-style” democracy has ever been issued a warrant before.

TheICC decided in 2021 that it had a mandate to investigate violence and war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian factions in events dating back to 2014, although Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its authority.

Khan visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza in late October, and Israel and the West Bank in December, and had made clear that his investigation would include 7 October and its aftermath.

Israel’s establishment, and much of the public, have long maintained that the UN and associated bodies are biased against the Jewish state.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu appeared to be publicly panic-stricken by the prospect of an ICC prosecution, and reportedly appealed to his ally Joe Biden, the US president, to intervene in any potential legal action against Israel.

Any ICC warrants could put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, further deepening the country’s growing international isolation over its conduct in the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed on 7 October, and about 35,000 people have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel is also facing a South African case in theinternational court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. Israel denies those charges.

The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

Benny Gantz, a former military chief and member of Israel’s war cabinet with Netanyahu and Gallant, criticised Khan’s announcement, saying Israel fights with “one of the strictest” moral codes and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself”.

NETANYAHU ARREST WARRANT! For War Crimes in Gaza. Zionist Bombing other Refugee Camps

By VT - Fabio G. C. Carisio -May 20, 2024

Benjamin Netanyahu and Yaya Sinwar, head of Hamas, could be wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and an international arrest warrant could soon hang on them from today.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will have to decide whether to accept the requests of chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who announced this today in an exclusive interview with CNN. Jordan calls for indictment of Israel for war crimes

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court wants to arrest Netanyahu. The British judge told the American broadcaster that the ICC prosecutor’s office has decided to extend the charges to both sides of the conflict that broke out on 7 October 2023 with the Hamas massacres on Israeli territory.

Those under investigation at Hamas are Sinwar, leader of the movement, together with those responsible for the attacks, massacres, kidnappings of people and the violence of 7 October: Ismael Hanyieh, political leader of Hamas, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades sadly made known in the intrusion into Israeli territory.

Together with Netanyahu, however, the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, is currently under investigation in Israel, on whom hangs the responsibility of the command of the armed forces which since 7 October have violently attacked the Gaza Strip, causing over 35 thousand deaths, 70% of such as women and children.

Let us remember that the International Criminal Court is a body separate from the International Court of Justice before which Israel is facing the trial for the risk of genocide in the Strip promoted by South Africa. Established by the Treaty of Rome in 2002, the ICC analyzes the responsibilities of individuals, before that of States, in cases of violation of international law.

Jordan calls for indictment of Israel for war crimes

Jordan demands an international investigation into what it says were many war crimes committed during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. This was stated by Amman’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi.

In a press conference with the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, Safadi said that those responsible for the documented crimes should be brought to justice. Israel strenuously denies that its troops committed war crimes.

Zionist bombs on Palestinian refugee camps kill more children

An Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat, a Palestinian refugee camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, killed 27 people, including 10 women and seven children, sources at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.

Another attack, again on Nuseirat, killed 5 people, the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said.

VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel

$ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

Fabio G. C. Carisio

Fabio is investigative journalist since 1991. Now geopolitics, intelligence, military, SARS-Cov-2 manmade, NWO expert and Director-founder of Gospa News: a Christian Information Journal.