Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has reportedly submitted requests for the issuance of arrest warrants. These warrants pertain to allegations of war crimes and genocide in the context of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and the events of 7 October.
Presenting evidence at the ICC headquarters in The Hague, Khan implicated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the perpetration of crimes against humanity within Gaza. He asserted that the collected evidence indicates a systematic effort by these officials to strip Palestinians of essential life necessities, contributing to civilian suffering and starvation.
Khan emphasised the universality of the law, insisting on accountability for all, irrespective of status or title, including presidents.
The Prosecutor of ICC also said that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the head of the Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, the military commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Al-Deif, and the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, are responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel.
Conversely, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) criticised Khan’s approach, and condemned his alleged attempts to draw parallels between victims and aggressors. This criticism centred on the issuance of arrest warrants against Hamas resistance leaders, which the movement claims violate UN charters and resolutions. They called for the annulment of all such warrants.
Hamas said that the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were seven months late. It called on the ICC Prosecutor to issue arrest and detention orders against all war criminals, including occupation leaders, officers, and soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s request as a “scandal.”
“They will not stop us,” Netanyahu said during a meeting of the Likud Party bloc, referring to his determination to continue his war on Gaza.
In addition, US President Joe Biden described the ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as “outrageous.”
“Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” Biden stated.
In another context, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Monday that Israel forced 810,000 Palestinians to leave Rafah to the southern side of Gaza Strip during the past two weeks.
Before the Israeli attacks on Rafah, there have been approximately 1.5 million Palestinians in Rafah, including approximately 1.4 million displaced from other areas in the Strip, fleeing the continuous Israeli bombing for seven months.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip also announced that the Israeli occupation committed 10 massacres against civilians during the past 24 hours, leaving 106 dead and 176 injured, confirming that the toll of the Israeli aggression on the Strip had risen to 35,562 dead and 79,652 injured since 7 October.
On the ground, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced that it had detonated an explosive device with an Israeli foot force east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and fired bombs at it, killing and wounding its members.
The Al-Quds Brigades also said that they bombed with a barrage of mortar shells a gathering of occupation vehicles at the civil administration site east of the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
For its part, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), said that it bombed with mortar shells a gathering of Israeli occupation army vehicles and soldiers east of the Jabalia camp in the northern the Strip.
