The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I issued warrants of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest”, it confirmed in a statement Thursday.
It is the first instance in the court's 22-year history it has issued arrest warrants for Western-allied senior officials.
In its statement, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I, a panel of three judges, said it has rejected appeals by Israel challenging its jurisdiction.
The chamber said it has decided to release the arrest warrants because "conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing", referring to Israel's ongoing onslaught on Gaza.
Netanyahu and Gallant, it said, “each bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” as well as “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
All 124 states that signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, are now under an obligation to arrest the wanted individuals and hand them over to the ICC in the Hague.
The court relies on the cooperation of member states to arrest and surrender suspects. The Netherlands' foreign minister quickly said his country was prepared to enforce the warrants while 93 nations earlier reiterated their support for the ICC.
Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer representing Palestinian victims at the ICC, called the warrants "a historic decision".
He noted that the court had endured "pressure and threats of sanctions" from the US government, but acted nonetheless.
As expected, the Tel Aviv regime rejected the rulings, with its security minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling the warrants “anti-Semitic through and through.”
The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.
Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court.
Israel unleashed its bloody Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023. So far, it has killed at least 43,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,092 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Comments
RSS biggest strenght is Lie. They can't digest the patriotism of muslims. Before the Independence RSS was supporting British, once got the Independence Rats started to come out. They have no moral rights to blame others on patriotism their forefathers were proved their patriotism while supporting British. Jai hind
True, Sangeeth... media always highlight muslims, minority and dalits..
Biased media. There might be some other reason. without reason why we should attack them.
LOL... Exactly Rajeev..
The reason is nothing but they distributed not saffron colour laddu.. they gave yellow laddu. nobody can tolerate this extreme step.. so they attacked
This is the outcome of Amit Shah's visit to karnataka.
Why amicable settlement grab such desh drohi culprit and make a procession let the peace loving Mangaloreans aware of such bjp wings lntention and motive.
Spreading communalism not required in our south kanara dist.
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