Prosecutors with the International Criminal Court are reportedly seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes stemming from their oversight of the genocide currently happening in Gaza. Additionally, ICC prosecutors are also seeing arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as well as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades and better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.
Netanyahu and his subsequent crimes in Gaza and greater Palestine mark the first time the ICC has sought an arrest warrant for a leader with such close connections to the United States. The ICC also applied and was granted an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Much like Russia, Israel (as well as the United States) withdrew their signatory on the Rome Statute and do not formally recognize the ICC. So an arrest warrant, will not remove leaders from power, as we’ve seen with Russia. However, in the case of Netanyahu and Gallant, countries like the United Kingdom and Germany, two close allies with Israel do recognize the Rome Statue and the ICC so it’ll be interesting to see how things transpire if and when those warrants are granted.
A panel of ICC judges will now consider the applications from the prosecutors and potentially move forward with approving the warrants.
