The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza. Also wanted are several Hamas officials, including leader Al-Masri. Meanwhile, casualties in the Gaza Strip have risen to more than 44,000.
By Alessandro Di Bussolo
The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court today issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Arrest warrants were also issued for a number of Hamas officials, including leader Al-Masri, commonly known as Deif. Israel had claimed to have killed him in an airstrike, but Hamas has never formally acknowledged his death.
Israel claims shameful and anti-Semitic decision
The decision by the Court in The Hague turns Netanyahu and Gallant into internationally wanted criminal suspects. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as “shameful and anti-Semitic.” The Israeli premier’s spokesman claimed “there is no more justified war than the one Israel is waging in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks” adding that ”Israel rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations of the International Criminal Court, which is a biased and discriminatory political body.”
Judges: Gaza Population deprived of food and medicine
“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 the warrants. It went on to add that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction is not necessary to enforce the warrants.
More than 44,000 casualties
Since the beginning of the conflict, now in its 403rd day, according to the Gaza Health Ministry there have been 44,056 casualties in the Gaza Strip and over 104,268 injured. Meanwhile, at least 22 people were killed today in Israeli air raids that struck several areas in the Baalbek region of eastern Lebanon. This was reported by the Beirut Health Ministry, pointing out that the highest number of casualties, at least eight, was in the locality of Nabha.
In the evening, the current Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, and the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi, met in Tel Aviv with the U.S. envoy, Amos Hochstein, who in the region to discuss a possible cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
