The court rejected arguments by the U.S. and Israel that the ICC does not have jurisdiction, subjecting the officials to potential arrest in 124 countries
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their role in Israel’s ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip. In its ruling, the court explicitly rejected arguments made by Israel and the U.S. that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Israel. “The acceptance by Israel of the Court’s jurisdiction is not required, as the Court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of the territorial jurisdiction of Palestine,” the court said.
“This is a watershed event in the history of international justice. The ICC has never, in over 21 years, indicted a pro-Western official. Indeed, no international court since World War II has done so,” said human rights attorney and war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody. “Up until now, the instruments of international justice have been used almost exclusively to address crimes by defeated adversaries as in the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, powerless outcasts, or opponents of the West such as Vladimir Putin or Slobodan Milošević.”
Alongside the two top Israeli officials, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, despite Israeli claims that he had been killed earlier this year in an airstrike in the Strip.
In May the ICC announced that the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials. Among those originally sought for arrest was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed while reportedly taking part in an ambush of Israeli troops last month.
Today’s statement said that the court had found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” The warrants remain classified in part to protect witnesses and the integrity of the investigation, according to the ICC. “However, the Chamber decided to release the information … since conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing,” the court said in its announcement. “Moreover, the Chamber considers it to be in the interest of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrants’ existence.”
The decision by the ICC to seek warrants against the two senior-most Israeli figures involved in the war in Gaza is certain to face furious pushback from the United States government, which already rejects the ICC’s jurisdiction over its own activities.
In 2002, the George W. Bush administration signed into law a bipartisan bill permitting the use of military force to liberate any U.S. or allied personnel charged with war crimes by the court. The bill, subsequently known in the human rights community as the “Hague Invasion Act,” authorizes the use of force to free military personnel, elected or appointed officials, and other persons employed by or working on behalf of the government of a NATO-member country, a major non-NATO ally (including Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand), or Taiwan.”
This week, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation sanctioning ICC prosecutors attempting to prosecute Israeli officials. The Biden administration has spent much of the past year undermining the legitimacy of international law and the jurisdiction of the ICC investigation of Israel. Some 42 Democrats voted for the House bill Thune is vowing to pass. If enacted, the legislation would impose sanctions on ICC personnel involved with prosecutions of U.S. citizens and those from allied nations that are not ICC members, including Israel. It would block some ICC officials from entry to the U.S. and revoke any U.S. visas.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, he imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors via executive order in retaliation for the court’s probes into Israel as well as U.S. war crimes committed in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden reversed that order in 2021, calling it “inappropriate and ineffective,” while reiterating his “longstanding objection to the Court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction” over Israel and the US.
There are currently 124 states around the world that have signed the Rome Statute ratifying the court. The U.S. and Israel are not among them, though the court has now rejected Israel’s claim that it holds no jurisdiction over its actions. Now that warrants have been issued, any member state where Netanyahu and Gallant may travel in the future would be obliged to arrest the Israeli officials if they enter their territory, drastically reducing their ability to travel globally.
“These warrants reinforce the growing international consensus around the criminal nature of Israel’s war on the people of Gaza, including the decision by the other court in The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that Israeli actions created plausible violations of the genocide convention,” war crimes prosecutor Brody told Drop Site News. “Netanyahu, like Vladimir Putin, is an accused war criminal whose world is now limited to countries which have not ratified the ICC treaty.”
The court’s decision may also create serious tension for the European Union, as it wages its own legal battle at the ICC against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant over his invasion of that country, which has increased legal pressure on the Russian leader over the conflict. Many European countries like Germany that have been vocally supportive of Israel will now face pressure to undermine the authority of the same court that they are relying on to combat Russia, while also facing likely U.S. pressure to join efforts to attack or destroy the ICC entirely.
Senior officials from a number of European Union states, including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, have said that they will abide by the rulings of the court, likely making these nations off-limits for travel for Netanyahu for the foreseeable future. European Union high representative on foreign affairs Josep Borrell also stated after the ICC announcement that, “the court’s decision must be respected and implemented,” by EU countries. While the Biden administration has already made clear it rejects the jurisdiction of the ICC over Israel, at least one U.S. mayor has pledged to comply with the warrants. “Dearborn will arrest Netanyahu & Gallant if they step within Dearborn city limits,” said Abudullah Hamoud, the mayor of the Michigan city with the largest percentage of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S, in a post on X. “Other cities should declare the same. Our president may not take action, but city leaders can ensure Netanyahu & other war criminals are not welcome to travel freely across these United States.”
Israeli officials were quick to denounce the issuance of the warrants, with former member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet Benny Gantz stating on social media: “The ICC’s decision – moral blindness and shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.” Netanyahu himself went even further, blasting the warrants as “antisemitic” and “akin to a modern-day Dreyfus trial,” while asserting that: “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false accusations by a biased and discriminatory politicized court. The decision was made by a corrupt chief prosecutor trying to save his skin from serious charges against him.”
In a statement responding to the ICC announcement, Hamas official Basem Naim did not mention the warrant issued for Deif. He welcomed the “historic” warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant as “an important step towards justice for the Palestinian cause,” but one that “remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by the right methodologies and backed by all countries around the world to implement it.”
The announcement summarizing the ICC’s reasoning for issuing the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant points to policies of the Israeli government aimed at denying food and medical supplies to the besieged civilian population of Gaza. The court announcement states 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,” actions for which they added that there was “no clear military need.”
Gazans have faced death from both famine and medical neglect as a result of Israeli blockades on the territory, as well as direct military attacks for which the court also alleges that Netanyahu and Gallant are culpable. The two men have now become the first officials of a U.S. ally to be charged with crimes against humanity by the court. In its statement announcing their arrest warrants, the ICC said that their actions were, “part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”