UPDATED: ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu over Gaza ‘war crimes’

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

The ICC issued the warrants for alleged “war crimes” in Gaza, according to an official statement. It said that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Messrs Netanyahu and Gallant committed war crimes, and added that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction is not required.

The Netherlands-based court said Mr Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for war crimes including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

CNN reported that the warrants mark a historic first, making Mr Netanyahu the first Israeli leader summoned by an international court for alleged actions against Palestinians.

The decision puts Mr Netanyahu in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

While ICC warrants don’t guarantee arrests, they could significantly restrict Mr Netanyahu’s ability to travel to ICC member states.

Mr Gallant recently had a fallout with Mr Netanyahu and was sacked from his position. However, that did not stop the ICC from issuing the warrant for the actions committed while he was in office.

The court on Thursday also issued a warrant for Hamas official Mohammed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was one of the masterminds of the 7 October 2023 attack. Israel said it killed him in an airstrike in September but Hamas hasn’t confirmed his death.

Mr Netanyahu’s office dismissed the warrants on him and Mr Gallant as “absurd and antisemitic.”

“Israel utterly rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, which is a politically biased and discriminatory body,” his office said, adding that there is “no war more just… after the Hamas terrorist organization launched a murderous attack against it, carrying out the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Mr Netanyahu “will not yield to pressure, will not back down, and will not retreat until all the goals of the war set by Israel at the start of the campaign are achieved,” it said.

A Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 led to the death of over 1,000 people Since then, Israel has continued to bombard Gaza, killing over 40,000 people, most of them children and women. Israeli attacks have also caused the death of over 100 journalists and scores of UN aid workers.

Recently, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu joined the global calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a return to the two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr Tinubu warned that “empty condemnations” are not enough to end the conflict in Palestine which, he said, “has persisted for far too long.”

The Nigerian leader argued this at the extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit, convened to address the current situation in the Middle East.

Nigeria is a signatory to the ICC. All ICC signatories are now expected to arrest Messrs Netanyahu, Gallant and al-Masri if they step into their territory.

Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC. However, the ICC claims to have 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.

When reports surfaced in May that the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan was considering issuing arrest warrants on Mr Netanyahu, Mr Netanyahu said that any ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials “would be an outrage of historic proportions,” and that Israel “has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law.”

When asked about the comments made by Mr Netanyahu. “Nobody is above the law,” Mr Khan replied. He said if Israel disagrees with the ICC, “they are free, notwithstanding their objections to jurisdiction, to raise a challenge before the judges of the court and that’s what I advise them to do.”

On Thursday, Al Jazeera reported that Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza despite the ongoing case against Mr Netanyahu.

The attacks have been severe in northern Gaza – and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut.

READ ALSO: Gaza War: Nigeria, other Israel’s crude oil, fuel suppliers risk war crimes probe Report

The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.

Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s 1 October missile barrage.