World Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant. What it means?- The Week

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Al-Masri over alleged Gaza war crimes.

According to ICC, the arrest warrants are issued in the interest of victims and their families.

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

The recent development means that ICC’s 124 member states would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and others if they were to enter their territory.

There are “reasonable” grounds to believe that Israeli PM Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare”.

They had “intentionally and knowingly deprived” Gaza civilians of food, water, medicine, medical supplies, fuel and electricity.

While Netanyahu’s office described the ruling as “absurd” and “antisemitic”. Israel will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred, and will not retreat,” it added.

What happens after arrest warrants are issued?

The arrest warrants make it harder for allies to continue lending military and diplomatic aid. Though warrants don’t always result in arrests, they still matter. They hold a symbolic value, marking the accused as international “pariahs and acknowledging the victim’s suffering”.

Warrants also mean ICC members—124 countries—have a legal obligation to arrest suspects who enter their territory (per Article 59 of the Rome Statute) and to cooperate with court proceedings (per Article 86). But countries don’t always comply.

They should actually travel to any ICC member countries for the arrest to take place. In many cases, the chances of such a thing happening are quite low.