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Judge Tomoko Akane arrives at the ICC court in The Hague on November 20, 2024 [EVA PLEVIER/ANP/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]
The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday urged UN member states to uphold their obligations under the Rome Statute and assist in the execution of outstanding arrest warrants, Anadolu agency reported.
Presenting the ICC’s 2025 Annual Report to the UN, Judge Tomoko Akane told the UN General Assembly that 33 publicly known arrest warrants remain unexecuted.
“The Court strongly urges States Parties to continue to fulfil their statutory obligations in line with the commitment made when signing the Rome Statute,” she said.
Akane listed one of the Court’s most closely watched investigations, including arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the onslaught in Palestine.
“The Court has continued efforts to enhance its tracking capabilities but arrest warrants cannot be executed without the cooperation of states.
“Again, the Court urges all UN member states to assist the Court by cooperating on the arrest and transfer of individuals subject to outstanding ICC arrest warrants,” she said.
Reaffirming the ICC’s commitment to victims, Akane emphasized that victims of mass atrocities remain “at the center” of ICC proceedings, describing their participation as essential to the Court’s mission.
“The Court gives victims a voice, a space to tell their stories, and the hope that truth will be acknowledged and responsibility established. Providing suffering humanity with hope and truth is at the very core of the Court’s raison d’être,” she said.
She highlighted the ICC’s work on reparations and restorative justice, which aim not only to provide compensation but also to help rebuild communities shattered by conflict.
Akane reaffirmed that despite mounting political and operational challenges, the ICC remains steadfast in its mission to uphold accountability and international justice.
“Despite all the challenges, the International Criminal Court will continue to carry out its judicial mandate to deal with individual criminal responsibility, with full independence and impartiality. In so doing, the Court hopes to offer its contribution to the rule of law in the international community,” she said.
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Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Hind Rajab and her family were martyred by Israeli forces, who fired 355 bullets at the child and her family while they were trapped in a vehicle. Photo: PRCS
The move followed a thorough criminal investigation conducted by various institutions, which provided compelling evidence of the complicity of the named personnel.
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) filed a complaint on Tuesday, October 21, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), with the names of 24 Israeli soldiers and commanders, whom evidence suggests are complicit in murdering six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, six of her family members, and two Palestinian paramedics in January 2024.
The move came one day after Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast a documentary on Monday, October 20, revealing the identities of the Israeli personnel, who “directly participated in or facilitated” the brutal assault.
The Brussels-based non-profit organization, which was named after the victimized Palestinian child with the mission of addressing and challenging Israeli impunity, said that the new complaint builds on its first communication to the ICC that was filed on May 3, 2025.
Who are the Israeli personnel identified by the HRF?
The first communication was filed by the foundation, after it identified Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Benny Aharon as the Israeli officer who has been directly responsible for Hind Rajab’s crime.
Aharon is the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) that carried out the military operation, which targeted Hind’s family car in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.
The HRF said then that it took a whole year of investigation to identify the IOF personnel under Aharon’s command who were involved in the attack.
In its new complaint, the HRF named the following IOF commanders and soldiers besides Aharon:
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, Commander of the 52nd Armored Battalion, which operates under the 401st Armored Brigade.
Major Sean Glass, Commander of the Vampire Empire Company, which operates under the 52nd Armored Battalion.
22 identified tank crew members of the Vampire Empire Company.
HRF’s executive director, Dyab Abou Jahjah, explained to Al Jazeera that the organization has known that the 401st brigade was responsible for killing Hind Rajab, but it wanted to go deeper than that and identify the battalion, the company and even every single tank participating on the ground at the time of the crime.
Regarding the complicit IOF company, Abou Jahjah said: “The company has only an English name ‘Vampire Empire’, which also indicates that it is in some sense a multinational company, and indeed it is. This company played a heinous role in the genocide in Gaza. It participated in the assault on Al-Shifa Hospital and in committing the massacre there.”
“There is a large number of dual-nationality soldiers in the company, and this truly opens up avenues for legal action at the countries’ level. At the level of the home countries of these criminals,” he noted.
How were these names identified?
According to Al-Jazeera’s documentary, these names were identified by tracking the social media accounts and profiles of various IOF personnel, who were boasting about their crimes in Gaza by posting related footage online for several months.
Publicly available sources and other privately leaked documents, were also used by Al Jazeera to identify the names of those found complicit in various IOF units during Israel’s genocidal aggression on the Gaza strip, focusing on Hind Rajab’s killing incident.
An investigation was conducted by Al Jazeera, London-based multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture, and the world’s first not-for-profit organization producing audio investigations, Earshot.
The three investigatory partners relied on evidence and analysis based on maps, satellite images, eye witnesses accounts, audio recordings, and phone calls obtained from the crime scene, which precisely revealed the source of the shooting.
“It was a site where there was not much visual evidence of the incident until after it had transpired. As with many of our cases, we use satellite imagery and this case was no exception. And we were, in this case, also able to use audio recordings that were captured by the Palestinian Red Crescent,” Nicholas Masterton from Forensic Architecture told Al Jazeera in the documentary.
“What was interesting about this case, was the way that those two things; the spatial mapping that came from the satellite imagery and the audio recordings, came together to give us an insight into what occurred on that day,” Masterton added.
Israel claimed that Hind Rajab, her family, and the paramedics were present in an area where an exchange of fire took place between the IOF and Palestinian resistance fighters.
However, a 28-second audio recording of Hind Rajab’s cousin screaming at the time of the incident, while rapid gunshot from a weapon that fires at high rate is heard, confirms that no exchange of fire took place then.
Satellite images also showed that only Israeli Merkava tanks were deployed in the area, when the crime was perpetrated.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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A general view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) building in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024 [Selman Aksünger/Anadolu Agency]
The Hague Initiative, an independent human rights organisation based in the Netherlands have issued an international call for lawyers and legal professionals to join in a collective global effort to defend the independence of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a statement issued on Thursday, the group declared its full support for justice for the victims of genocide in Palestine and called for lawyers and legal professionals to join a vigil in front of the ICC in The Hague on Friday 24 October. The statement said those who were unable to attend the gathering in The Hague should hold parallel gatherings before their courts and bar associations in their respective countries.
The Hague Initiative declared full support for justice for the victims of genocide in Palestine and unwavering endorsement of the International Criminal Court (ICC). “We refuse to remain silent in the face of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank;” the statement read.
They further called for: the removal of all obstacles and threats so that the ICC would be enabled to carry out its mandate freely and without any political interference; an immediate end to all sanctions imposed on the Court or its Prosecutor; the issuance of arrest warrants for all political and military officials responsible for committing war crimes in Palestine; and the unhindered and unconditional delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Reactions to the Gaza ceasefire deal signal that European leaders are more interested in advancing neocolonial projects than seeing peace in Palestine.
European government leaders were quick to comment on the recently announced ceasefire deal for Gaza – but their enthusiasm seemed directed less toward a possible respite for the people of Palestine after two years of genocide, and more toward a new opportunity to ingratiate themselves with US President Donald Trump. Early statements overflowed with compliments for the US administration, accompanied by brief acknowledgments of other participants in the negotiations, before moving to promises of what Europe intends to do next.
“The European Union will continue to support the swift and safe delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media. “And when the time comes, we will be ready to help with recovery and reconstruction.” In her remarks, von der Leyen made no mention of the fact that the EU had failed to take decisive action to ensure the delivery of food and medicine to Gaza throughout Israel’s genocide, or that EU member states continued to ship weapons to the occupation power, thus directly contributing to the destruction she now presumably wants to help Gaza recover from.
Similar statements could be found across communication channels of French, British, and other European officials. Some of the most remarkable reactions, however, came from Italy, whose government representatives had previously described President Trump’s plan for Gaza as the only achievable one and poured praise on his diplomatic skills. The same officials had criticized Italian activists who joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the sea blockade of the Strip and deliver essential supplies, failing to protect them from an Israeli terrorist attack and kidnapping in international waters.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that Italy “is ready to contribute to the stabilization, reconstruction, and development of Gaza,” while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani posted videos showing Gazans waving Italian flags alongside Palestinian ones, apparently mistaking their recognition of Italian workers and students – who organized two general strikes and mass demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, bringing inspiration to the whole region – for gratitude toward the Meloni administration itself.
In reality, Italy’s far-right government has continuously backed Israel throughout the genocide and shipped substantial quantities of weapons to the occupation forces. For this reason, Meloni, Tajani, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, along with arms manufacturer Leonardo’s CEO Roberto Cingolani, were recently reported to the International Criminal Court for suspicion of complicity in crimes against humanity.
Reactions from the left were more skeptical of what lies ahead. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) commented: “After so many deaths and months of genocide, a ceasefire could take place in Gaza. How could one not rejoice at this? […] But once again, the Palestinians will have to endure a new foreign political order. And can one really believe Trump? From our continent, let us lend lucid and vigilant support to the ceasefire while remaining attentive and mobilized.”
Progressive politicians in Europe also criticized the EU’s enthusiasm to define Gaza’s political future. Marc Botenga, MEP for the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA), warned: “The EU needs to pressure Israel to respect the ceasefire, lift the humanitarian blockade, withdraw from the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian territory.” Reacting to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, who suggested that the bloc should have a seat at the table while the management of Gaza is discussed, Botenga added: “Europe should stand for Palestinian self-determination instead of fighting to be part of a neocolonial administration.”
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A general view of the ships, anchored in a bay off the coast of Italy, while the Global Sumud Flotilla continues its preparations for departure towards Greece’s Crete, on September 16, 2025. [Niccolo Celesti – Anadolu Agency]
The Global Sumud Flotilla announced Wednesday that its legal team will take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after repeated drone assaults on its vessels bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
Abdelhaq Benqadi, a Moroccan lawyer representing the Arab Lawyers Union aboard the mission, said the team is compiling evidence of “war crimes at sea,” including the types and numbers of drones used, electronic jamming, the munitions deployed, and the resulting damage.
He noted that a comprehensive report will be submitted to The Hague.
Organizers earlier reported 12 blasts hitting nine ships in international waters after drones repeatedly targeted the flotilla. While the group did not attribute responsibility, Israel – which has threatened to block the mission from reaching Gaza – has not commented.
“This is a full-fledged war crime, and the ICC must act,” Benqadi wrote in a post on the US social media company Facebook.
Israel has a record of intercepting aid vessels bound for Gaza, seizing ships and deporting activists in actions widely condemned as piracy.
The case comes as Israel already faces mounting legal scrutiny. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing South Africa’s genocide case over Gaza, where more than 65,400 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in a brutal offensive since October 2023.
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The current flotilla, carrying humanitarian supplies including medical aid, is among the largest ever to sail for Gaza, with nearly 50 ships attempting to break Israel’s 18-year blockade on the enclave’s 2.4 million residents.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAVote Labour for Genocide.
