International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas chief over Gaza and October 7th crimes

(Patria) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the attacks on Israel on October 7th and the subsequent war in Gaza, the court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN in an exclusive interview with Christiane Amanpour.

Khan said the ICC is also seeking warrants for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, leader of the Al Qassem brigades and better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh.

The warrants against Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the leader of a close ally of the United States. The decision places Netanyahu in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over Moscow's war against Ukraine.

A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan's request for arrest warrants.

Khan said the charges against Sinwar, Haniyeh, and al-Masri include "extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault in detention".

Khan: No one is above the law

"The world was shocked on October 7th when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from various kibbutzim in Israel," Khan said, adding that "people have suffered enormously".

The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include "causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, intentionally targeting civilians in conflict," Khan said.

When reports emerged last month that the ICC's chief prosecutor was considering this course of action, Netanyahu said any ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli state and military officials would be "an insult of historic proportions," and that Israel "has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law.”

When asked by Amanpour about Netanyahu's comments, Khan said: "No one is above the law."

He said that if Israel disagrees with the ICC, "they are free, irrespective of their objections to jurisdiction, to make a submission to the judges of the court and that is what I advise them to do."

Israel and the United States are not members of the International Criminal Court. However, the ICC claims 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.