The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
The court has also issued arrest warrants for Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. Israel said in August it had killed Deif in a Gaza airstrike earlier this year.
The ICC said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare” and that they had “intentionally and knowingly deprived” Gaza’s civilians of food, water, medicine, medical supplies and fuel and electricity.
It also claimed that “each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.
The conflict in Gaza was triggered by an attack inside Israel by Hamas on 7 October last year, during which around 1,200 Israelis were killed, and another 251 people were taken hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory war from land and air, alongside a blockade, has killed 44,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, according to health authorities inside the besieged territory. Around 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes.
The ICC said it had found reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas’ Deif was “responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon personal dignity; and rape and other form of sexual violence”.
The move is a dramatic escalation of legal proceedings over the war in Gaza as it turns Mr Netanyahu and the co-accused into suspects wanted internationally and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month conflict.
It means that ICC’s 124 member states – including the UK – would be obliged to arrest Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant if they were to enter their territory.
Israel has vehemently denied the allegations against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, with the prime minister’s office calling the ruling antisemitic.
Israel “categorically rejects the absurd and false lies” levelled against it by the ICC, a statement said, adding that Mr Netanyahu will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred and will not retreat until all of Israel’s war objectives are achieved”. In a statement, Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, also rejected the ICC decision.
However, a spokesperson for UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer was more equivocal: "We respect the independence of the International Criminal Court, which is the primary international institution for investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes of international concern.
"This government has been clear that Israel has a right to defend itself in accordance with international law. There is no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy, and Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, which are terrorist organisations.”
But Downing Street would not say if Mr Netanyahu would be arrested if he visited the UK. "We are not going to get into hypotheticals. We remain focused on pushing for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the devastating violence," the spokesperson said.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that the arrest warrants were “not political” and that the decision by the ICC should be “respected and implemented”.
Alonso Gurmendi, a fellow in human rights at the London School of Economics and an expert in international law, called the ICC decision “momentous on many levels”.
“For the first time a Western-backed leader is indicted by the ICC – it is an important moment for the global South to see how the global North will respond,” he said.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called the issuing of the warrants “one of the lowest points” in the nation’s history.
Aid agencies and the UN have been warning for months of an acute crisis across the Gaza Strip, with food, water, power and medical supplies all in increasingly short supply.
Earlier this week, the UN warned that Palestinians are "facing diminishing conditions for survival" in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces for weeks because virtually no aid has been delivered in 40 days.
Earlier this month, a UN-backed assessment said there was a strong likelihood that famine was imminent in northern Gaza.
UN agencies had planned 31 missions to the besieged areas of North Gaza governorate between 1 and 18 November, according to the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Twenty-seven were rejected by Israeli authorities and the other four were severely impeded.
Israel has repeatedly insisted there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza, and accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the military group has denied.
Over the weekend, a convoy of 109 UN aid lorries carrying food was violently looted in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said.
UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini did not identify the perpetrators, but he said the “total breakdown of civil order” in Gaza, with people desperate for food and supplies, meant it had “become an impossible environment to operate in”.
On Thursday, Mr Lazzarini said that 80 per cent of the Gaza Strip is now high-risk areas, with many people increasingly desperate.
In May, the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants for Mr Netanyahu, Mr Gallant, Deif and two other Hamas leaders who have since been killed, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.
At the time, US president Joe Biden blasted the prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and a political rival of Mr Netanyahu, condemned the latest ICC move as showing “moral blindness”, adding that it was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten”.
Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, called it a “prize for terror”. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called the issuing of the warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant an “absurd decision”.
The ICC has no police to enforce warrants which means neither Mr Netanyahu or Mr Gallant are likely to face judges in the Hague. Israel and the US are not members of the court.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is wanted on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, recently showed he could still visit an ally when he travelled to Mongolia, one of the court's member states, and was not arrested.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and arguing that the court did not provide Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting the warrants. The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like that which exists in Israel has been treated in this prejudicial manner by the prosecutor,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X/Twitter.
He said Israel remained “steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice” and would continue to protect its citizens against militancy.
On the ground in Gaza, medics said dozens had been killed in overnight airstrikes in the north. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military, which has been operating in Beit Lahia and the nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun since early last month in a campaign it said was aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping and waging attacks.
The ICC case is separate from the legal battle Israel is waging at the International Court of Justice after South Africa alleged it was committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Lawyers for Israel argued in court that the war in Gaza was a legitimate defence of its people and that it was Hamas who were guilty of genocide.
