Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and many officials of the murderous Hamas criminal organization were officially requested to have imprisonment permits on Monday.
Khan made the explicit distinction between the self-defense operation by Israel against Hamas in Gaza and the common atrocities committed by Hamas extremists in Israel on October 7, 2023, and called the self-defense operation to remove Hamas from Gaza, a country it has controlled since 2007,” criminal.”
Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, poses for an interview with AFP at the Palais Royal in Paris on February 7, 2024 ( Dimitar DILKOFF/AFP).
” Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its people. But, that proper does not relieve Israel or any other nation of its responsibility to abide by international humanitarian law,” Khan wrote in his response to the request for arrest warrants. ” Notwithstanding any military targets they may have, the indicates Israel chose to reach them in Gaza – namely, intentionally causing death, hunger, wonderful suffering, and severe damage to body or health of the human population – are criminal”.
The International Criminal Court ( ICC ) is a global body created by international legal document, the Rome Statute, that has the authority to process accusations against individual persons for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Israel and Palestinian political groups, which Khan referred to as a” state” of” Palestine,” are the only states that have committed to abide by the Rome Statute’s requirements. Should the court grant Khan’s requests, Rome Statute signatory nations would have the authority to detain the people who were targeted.
Khan requested warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as well as several high- ranking Hamas terrorists: terror chief Yahya Sinwar, “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh, and the” commander- in- chief” of Hamas’s al- Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al- Masri.
In the midst of ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas ( ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images ), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ( L ) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hold a press conference on October 28, 2023 at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.
The Hamas leaders stand accused of five separate crimes against humanity and three war crimes, all related to the atrocities of October 7, among them murder, taking of hostages, rape, and “extermination”. Khan claimed that the atrocities were a result of” an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine,” a state that does not exist.
Khan noted that the victims of October 7 who formally charged them at the ICC in February and presented 1, 000 pages of evidence to the court, were able to bring charges against Hamas leaders.
” I personally went to Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as the Supernova Music Festival in Re’im, and I saw the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the vile crimes that were brought up in the applications filed today,” Khan wrote. I heard from survivors about how the deepest bonds between a parent and child, the love within a family, were contorted to cause unfathomable pain through calculating cruelty and extreme callousness.
The destruction caused by Hamas militants when they infiltrated Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Israeli- Gaza border, southern Israel. October 25, 2023 ( DIMA VAZINOVICH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images ).
Israeli authorities documented an estimated 1, 200 people killed by the Hamas invasion on October 7 and another 250 taken hostage, of which around 130 remain missing, suspected dead, or in captivity. Widespread evidence, including videos taken and uploaded to the Internet by the terrorists themselves, indicated that they engaged in atrocities such as gang rape, executions during rape, the massacre of entire families in their homes, infanticide, torture, and desecration of corpses.
Khan compared these crimes to Israel’s plan to stop the attack from happening again.
Netanyahu and Gallant are facing three charges of “war crimes” and three of” crimes against humanity”, including” starvation”, “extermination”, and “persecution”.
We contend that in accordance with State policy, the crimes against humanity are being committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day”, Khan wrote.
Khan claimed that Israel “intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population of all parts of Gaza of items unaffordable to human survival” in contrast to evidence of booming markets and a surplus of humanitarian aid in some areas of Gaza. Khan also blasted Israel for “arbitrarily restricting the transfer of essential supplies– including food and medicine – through the border crossings after they were reopened.” Multiple reports claimed that neighboring Egypt, not Israel, was in charge of keeping the border closed at the Rafah border crossing, which is the southernmost and most direct route to civilians after Israel’s authorities addressed the Hamas presence in northern Gaza.
Additionally, the accusations did not address rumors that Hamas was allegedly stealing humanitarian aid and attacking crossings that allowed aid into Gaza.
Khan emphasized that the purpose of the warrant requests was to treat Hamas and Israeli authorities in the same way.
” Let us today be clear on one core issue: if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse”, Khan wrote. We will loosen the stabilizing connections between all communities and individuals, as well as the safety net that all victims look to when they are in pain, by doing so. This is the real danger that we are currently facing.
On Monday, the Israeli government issued an outraged response to the arrest requests.
In a statement from War cabinet minister Benny Gantz, the State of Israel is engaged in one of the just wars ever waged in modern history.
While Israel adheres to one of the most stringent moral standards in history while upholding international law and having a strong independent judiciary, drawing comparisons between the leaders of a democratic nation who are determined to stand up for themselves against bloodthirsty terrorists is a clear example of moral decay.
Netanyahu had warned the ICC in April that issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials would be” an outrage of historical proportions.”
In response to the Holocaust committed against the Jewish people, international organizations like the ICC emerged. They were set up to prevent such horrors, to prevent future genocides,” Netanyahu said at the time”. The leaders and soldiers of Israel being portrayed as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the rampant antisemitism that is already roiling on American campuses and across global capitals.
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