An International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other top officials on both sides over charges including "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".
Karim Khan KC said the ICC would also seeking warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alongside two more Hamas leaders: Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades - better known as Mohammed Deif - and Ismail Haniyeh, the group's political leader.
Speaking to CNN, Khan said the charges against the Hamas figures include "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention."
The prosecutor continued: "The world was shocked on October 7 when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel," adding that "people have suffered enormously".
Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Yahya Sinwar are among the figures targeted by the warrantsGetty/Reuters
Karim Khan's statement has provoked outrage from officials on both sides
Reuters
While the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include "causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict," Khan said.
Israel has denied committing war crimes in the conflict in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan's application for the arrest warrants.
Reacting to the news, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision to seek arrest warrants for three leading Hamas militants "equates the victim with the executioner".
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Yair Lapid claimed the possible arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant amounted to a "disaster"
Reuters
Abu Zuhri also said the decision gives encouragement to Israel to continue what he called a "war of extermination" in Gaza.
While Israel's opposition leader, Yair Lapid, slammed the announcement, claiming the possible arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant amounted to a "disaster" and calling on the US Congress to intervene.
And Benny Gantz, a former military chief and member of Israel's war cabinet, also condemned Khan's announcement, saying Israel fights with "one of the strictest" moral codes and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself.
Israel's Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was scathing in his criticism, saying the decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant is a "show of hypocrisy and Jew-hatred [and] arrest warrants against them are arrest warrants against us all".
While the US and Israel are not ICC members, the court claims to have jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank after Palestinian leaders agreed to be bound by the ICC's founding principles in 2015.
And the news comes as Israel also faces down a case in the International Court of Justice tabled by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide - charges which Israel denies.
In an ICC statement, Khan added: "Now, more than ever, we must collectively demonstrate that international humanitarian law, the foundational baseline for human conduct during conflict, applies to all individuals and applies equally across the situations addressed by my office and the court.
"This is how we will prove, tangibly, that the lives of all human beings have equal value."
