On May 20, Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced that he has applied for arrest warrants for five Israeli and Hamas leaders. These include Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant. This dramatic development marks the first time leaders of a western allied state have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the ICC.
Along with an expert panel that independently reviewed the evidence supporting the application, Khan concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant are criminally responsible for starvation, murder, intentional attacks against civilians, extermination and persecution, among other crimes.
Khan alleges these acts are part of a common plan “to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence,” both to achieve Israel’s war aims and to collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza. Under international law, the crime of starvation includes not only the deliberate deprivation of food, but also other objects indispensable to human survival including water, medicine and fuel.
