Islam is key to peace, convention concludes

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).

The Israeli military has conducted fresh attacks on Lebanon in violation of a ceasefire agreement with the Hezbollah resistance movement and ramped up its deadly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement posted Thursday on X, the Lebanese army said Israeli occupation forces several times violated the truce deal just after it went into effect, and the following day.

"These breaches included aerial violations and attacks on Lebanese territory using various weapons," it added.

The Israeli military confirmed its Thursday aerial assault on southern Lebanon, adding that its forces had also opened fire towards the people who were driving to their homes in the area.

Earlier, Lebanese media reported that at least two people were wounded after Israeli tank fire hit five towns and some agricultural fields in the country's south.

"The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages," Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said. "There are violations today by Israel, even in this form."

Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah after suffering heavy losses following more than 14 months of fighting and failing to achieve its goals in its aggression on Lebanon.

The truce agreement, brokered by the United States and France, came into effect before dawn on Wednesday. It will last for 60 days in the hope of reaching a permanent cessation of hostilities.

At least 3,961 people were killed and 16,520 others injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after Israel unleashed its war against the besieged territory in October 2023, launching numerous retaliatory attacks against Israeli targets in the occupied territories. 

In a statement that followed the ceasefire, Hezbollah vowed to continue resisting Israel and monitoring the occupation army’s withdrawal from south Lebanon “with [our] hands on the trigger” in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Hezbollah further empathized that its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy."

It also reaffirmed its commitment to the Palestinian cause, noting that it will continue the path of resistance with even greater determination.

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 42

Across the Gaza Strip, at least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday. 

Reports said Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Gaza's central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the Palestinian territory’s north and south.

Since October 2023, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 44,330 Palestinians and injured 104,933 others in its brutal Gaza onslaught.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said at least 70 percent of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza were women and children.

Philippe Lazzarini said the ongoing Israeli offensive in the northern edge of Gaza has uprooted 130,000 people over the past seven weeks.

An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.