The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled this Thursday arrest warrants against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former head of Defense, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimescrimes against humanity perpetrated within the framework of the military offensive launched more than a year ago on the Gaza Strip.
The Hague court, which has rejected Israel’s appeals and ruled that it has jurisdiction in the case, believes there is evidence that both Netanyahu and Gallant They knowingly sought to leave the Gazan population without elements “indispensable for their survival” and blocking the entry of aid, also hindering the work of humanitarian organizations.
The judges believe that Netanyahu and Gallant They can be “criminally responsible” for using starvation as a method of waras well as murders, other inhuman acts and persecution that would fall within the category of crimes against humanity. He also reproaches them that indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population may have been committed under their command.
In the case of Gallant, the order comes to him outside the Ministry of Defense, since he was dismissed earlier this month by Netanyahu after apparent disputes between the two over the strategy to follow both on the Gaza front and in that of Lebanon, where Israel also fights combat with the Shiite militia party Hezbollah.
Hamas leader
The court has also ordered this Thursday the arrest of the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohamed Diab al Masri, known as ‘Abú Deif’after other previously identified leaders of the Islamist group, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniye, have lost their lives in recent months in Israeli operations.
To the leader of the Brigades Ezzeldin al Qassam He is accused of various crimes against humanity – murder, extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence – and war crimes – murder, cruel treatment and torture, hostage-taking, atrocities against personal dignity, rape and other forms of sexual violence– which would date back to the attacks of October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people died and another 240 were kidnapped.
The TPI Prosecutor’s Office had requested the arrest of all of them last May, so The scope of the crimes investigated will go from October 2023 until the date of intervention of the office led by prosecutor Karim Khanwhich in recent months had asked the court on several occasions to rule on this case as soon as possible.
Limited travel
In any case, in the current context It seems complicated that the arrest warrants issued this Thursday can be executedtaking into account that the ICC does not have its own elements and depends on the police collaboration of the signatory States of the Rome Statute, within which Israel does not appear nor does its main international supporter, the United States.
So, Netanyahu could technically continue traveling to other countries as long as he did not set foot in one of the 124 countries that make up the ICC.. Since the attacks of October 7, he has only traveled abroad twice, in both cases to the United States: in July for an official visit and in September for the main session of the UN General Assembly.
Before the aforementioned attacks, it was more common for him to visit other countries and in 2023 he made several trips that took him, for example, to France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, all of them signatories of the Rome Statute.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who also has an arrest warrant for crimes in Ukraine, visited Mongolia this year with the connivance of local authorities, who technically did have to abide by the court’s rulings.
