It calls for the issuance of arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, both for the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and for the subsequent war in Gaza the International Criminal Court, as Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Karim Khan also clarified that the International Criminal Court is also seeking warrants for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad, as well as two other top Hamas leaders, namely political leader Ismail Haniya and the head of the Al-Qassem Brigades, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri. .
The inclusion of Israeli politicians in the request marks the first time the International Criminal Court has targeted the leader of a country that is a close US ally.
Benjamin Netanyahu joins the "club" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the invasion and war in Ukraine.
Now, a panel of judges at the International Criminal Court will consider Khan's application for the arrest warrants.
Heavy accusations against Hamas leaders
Khan said the charges against Sinwar, Haniya and al-Masri include "extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape and sexual assault while in custody."
"The world was shocked on October 7 when people were uprooted from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the various kibbutzim in Israel," Khan told Amanpour, adding that "people suffered a lot."
The accusations against Netanyahu and Gallad
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallad include "inciting extermination, inciting starvation as a method of war, including denying humanitarian aid, deliberately targeting civilians in conflicts."
The development comes after reports last month that the Court's chief prosecutor was considering the International Court of Justice's steps. For his part, Netanyahu had stated that any arrest warrants issued by The Hague against senior Israeli government and military officials "would be an insult of historic proportions" and that Israel "has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of its law".
"No one is above the law," Khan said when asked by Amanpour, adding that if Israel disagreed with the International Criminal Court they were free, despite jurisdictional objections, to challenge it before its judges. court.
Israel and the United States are not members of the International Criminal Court. However, the ICC maintains that it has jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank after Palestinian leaders formally agreed to be bound by the court's founding principles in 2015.
Source: protothema.gr
