ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes”.

The shift is a dramatic escalation of legal proceedings over the war in Gaza and means that ICC’s 124 member states would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they were to enter their territory.

On Thursday, the court said it had unanimously decided to decline Israel’s appeal over the ICC’s jurisdiction.

It said there were “reasonable grounds” to depend that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a way of warfare”.

The ICC said there were also reasonable grounds to depend they had “intentionally and knowingly deprived” Gaza’s civilians of food, water, medicine, medical supplies and fuel and electricity.

Netanyahu has previously rejected the ICC’s prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants as “absurd and untrue . . . and a distortion of reality”.

Israel has argued that no other democracy has been treated in such a “prejudicial manner” by the ICC and that it remains committed to the rule of law.

The court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas chief Mohammed Deif for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Israel said in August it had killed Deif in an air strike in Gaza a month earlier.

This is a developing narrative