The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; his former defense minster, Yoav Gallant; and Ibrahim al-Masri, a senior Hamas official.
The warrants mean the court has reason to believe all three have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. But their arrests are far from guaranteed.
What crimes are Netanyahu and Gallant charged with?
The court said it has reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant are responsible for using “starvation as a method of warfare,” which it classifies as a war crime.
The pair are also suspected of crimes against humanity as “part of a widespread and systematic attack” on civilians in Gaza, including murder, persecution, and “other inhumane acts.”
According to international prosecutors, Netanyahu and Gallant deprived civilians in Gaza of necessary supplies for their survival, including food and medicine, and impeded essential humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
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Those actions, prosecutors claim, “created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which resulted in the death of civilians, including children due to malnutrition and dehydration.”
Netanyahu and Gallant also may bear “criminal responsibility” for intentionally attacking civilians, according to the court.
The alleged crimes took place from the day after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel last year through at least May 20, when ICC prosecutor Karim Khan filed applications for the arrest warrants.
Netanyahu and Gallant rejected the charges and refused to turn themselves in for arrest.
“Israel utterly rejects the false and absurd charges of the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Thursday.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not give in to pressure. He will continue to pursue all the objectives that Israel set out to achieve in its just war against Hamas and the Iranian axis of terror,” the statement read.
Gallant said the court’s decision “places the State of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row.”
“The decision sets a dangerous precedent against the right to self-defense and moral warfare and encourages murderous terrorism,” he said in a statement.
Will Netanyahu and Gallant be arrested?
Netanyahu and Gallant won’t be arrested on Israeli soil, since Israel has not signed onto the Rome Statute, the central treaty that sets out the court’s jurisdiction and rules.
Since the court has no police force of its own, it must rely on the countries that have signed the Rome Statute to carry out arrests.
That means the arrest warrant could prevent Netanyahu and Gallant from traveling to the 124 countries that have signed the statute, where they could be arrested.
But even countries who have signed the statute sometimes don’t necessarily carry out arrests on the ICC’s orders.
For example, Mongolia, a signatory of the statute, did not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visited the country in September. Putin is wanted for arrest by the court for alleged crimes connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Who was the Hamas leader who is wanted for arrest?
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas commander referred to by the ICC as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.
Deif, born in 1965, is the highest-level commander of Hamas’ military wing, one of several Palestinian militant groups that orchestrated the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Although some reports say Deif was killed, ICC prosecutors said on Nov. 15 that they couldn’t confirm whether he is dead or alive. The court also previously filed arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but withdrew them after the two were confirmed dead in Israeli attacks.The ICC said Deif is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, beginning with Hamas’ attack last Oct. 7, including murder, extermination, torture, taking hostages, rape and other form of sexual violence, and “outrages upon personal dignity.”
More:Friends lost, relatives at odds: How Oct. 7 reshaped lives in the U.S.
The court said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that senior Hamas leaders, including Deif, Sinwar and Haniyeh, jointly agreed to carry out the Oct. 7 attacks.
Under their command, the ICC said, Hamas fighters “carried out mass killings” in Israel’s border communities and at the Supernova music festival, including firing on and throwing grenades at people seeking shelter. The leaders were also charged for ordering the kidnapping of the more than 200 Israeli hostages taken during the attack.
What is the Rome Statute?
The Rome Statute sets out which crimes are under the International Criminal Court’s purview and the process the court uses to prosecute them. It gives the court jurisdiction over people suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and, as of 2018, the crime of aggression.
The statute was established in 1988, when the first ICC was created through a conference of 160 countries.
In issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the court unanimously rejected challenges that Israel brought under the statute.
According to the statute, the court’s pre-trial chamber can issue an arrest warrant if it has reasonable grounds to believe the person committed one of the crimes under its purview.
A warrant for arrest could also be issued to make sure a person appears for a trial or to prevent them from continuing a crime or obstructing an investigation into a crime.
After a suspect is arrested, the court begins hearings to confirm the charges. Three judges then have 60 days to decide if the court has enough evidence to bring the case to trial. If the suspect is not arrested, ICC officials can make legal submissions, but the hearings can’t start.
If the judges decide the evidence is sufficient, the trial begins. Convicts can receive sentences of up to 30 years in prison. Life sentences are only handed out in “exceptional circumstances,” according to the court.
Has the U.S. signed the Rome Statute?
The U.S. is not a state party to the Rome Statute, so Netanyahu and Gallant could still enter U.S. borders without risking arrest.
The U.S. refuses to sign the statute in part because it fears that could open up members of the U.S. military to international charges.
Although the U.S. played a role that led to the court’s creation, it was one of seven countries that voted against the Rome Statute in 1998.
Bill Clinton signed the statute two years later, but it was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, and George W. Bush effectively took the U.S. off the list of signatories.
