Decoding the ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu, Hamas leaders Premium

The Hindu’s Sumeda decodes the meaning and implications of ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu and Hamas leaders.

The story so far: After seven months of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has killed 35,000 Palestinians, devastated the region and triggered a humanitarian crisis, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday applied for arrest warrants for Hamas and Israel leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

“I remain deeply concerned about ongoing allegations and emerging evidence of international crimes occurring in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Our investigation continues. My office is advancing multiple and interconnected additional lines of inquiry, including concerning reports of sexual violence during the October 7 attacks, and concerning the large-scale bombing that has caused and continues to cause so many civilian deaths, injuries, and suffering in Gaza,” ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said in a statement.

The move has elicited a strong reaction from both Israel and Hamas, who have criticised the Prosecutor and dismissed the charges of war crimes. While PM Netanyahu has condemned the legal step as “disgraceful and antisemitic,” Hamas has stated that the request “equates the victim with the executioner.”

The Prosecutor’s application will be next placed before a pre-trial chamber of the ICC. A panel of three judges of the pre-trial chamber will decide whether to issue arrest warrants and allow the case to proceed. While there is no deadline for judges to arrive at a decision, this can take anywhere between a month to several months, as seen in previous cases.

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The International Criminal Court is the world’s first permanent international criminal court established in 2002 to prosecute individuals for crimes under international law. As a “court of last resort,” the ICC investigates and tries individuals charged with genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression when local jurisdictions are unwilling or fail to prosecute.

The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which deals with legal disputes between states. It is governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998 in Rome, Italy. Countries must sign the Rome Statute and ratify it with the consent of their legislatures to join the ICC. Currently, 124 countries are members of the ICC, with African countries making up the largest bloc. Notably, Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute in 2015 after the U.N. General Assembly accorded it the status of “non-member observer State.” This means that the ICC has the criminal jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel and the United States, meanwhile, are not members of the Court.