The ICC sought arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes related to the October 7 attack and the Gaza war

CNN
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The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan said , told CNN Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Monday.

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

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

A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application for an arrest warrant.

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

“The world was shocked on October 7 when people were torn from their bedrooms, from their homes and from the various kibbutzim in Israel,” Khan told Amanpour, adding that “people suffered enormously.”

The allegations against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing exterminations, causing famine as a method of war, including denying humanitarian aid, and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” Khan told Amanpour.

When reports emerged last month that the ICC’s chief prosecutor was considering such action, Netanyahu said that any ICC arrest warrants against high-ranking Israeli government and military officials would be “a scandal of historic proportions” and that Israel has “an independent judicial system” that deals with all violations of the law rigorously investigated.”

When asked by Amanpour about Netanyahu’s comments, Khan replied: “No one is above the law.”

He said that if Israel disagrees with the ICC, “regardless of their objections to jurisdiction, they are free to raise a challenge before the judges of the court, and I advise them to do just that.”

Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC. However, the ICC maintains that it has jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank after Palestinian leaders formally agreed in 2015 to be bound by the court’s founding principles.

This story is current and will be updated.