The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This development follows the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan revealed in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
Khan also mentioned that the ICC is pursuing warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with two other senior Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.
This marks a significant moment as it is the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States. Netanyahu now joins the ranks of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC has issued an arrest warrant over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
A panel of ICC judges will review Khan’s application for these arrest warrants. The charges against Sinwar, Haniyeh, and al-Masri include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention.” Khan emphasized the horrific nature of the October 7 attacks, where civilians were violently abducted from their homes in Israel.
Regarding Netanyahu and Gallant, the charges involve “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.” Netanyahu previously condemned the idea of ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials, calling it an “outrage of historic proportions” and asserting that Israel has a robust legal system that independently investigates legal violations.
When asked about Netanyahu’s comments, Khan maintained that “nobody is above the law” and encouraged Israel to challenge the court’s jurisdiction before its judges if they disagreed.
Although Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC, the court claims jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank since Palestinian leaders agreed to the court’s founding principles in 2015.