Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant attend a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 28, 2023
ACTIVISTS and experts welcomed the arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant issued by the International Criminal Court today.
Leading Hamas official Mohammed Deif also had a warrant issued against him.
The warrants accused each of them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively.
The three-judge panel was unanimous in its decision to issue warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, saying that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
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The court’s action turns Mr Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Pope Francis speaks on December 25, 2023 in the Vatican City.(Photo: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty Images)
The pontiff’s call comes as the International Court of Justice is reviewing evidence in a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel.
In a new book set to be released this week, Pope Francis I endorsed a genocide investigation into Israel’s war on Gaza—which has killed or maimed more than 150,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened millions more over the past 13 months.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” the pontiff wrote in his latest book, which goes on sale in some countries on November 19.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the Pope added. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
The Pope’s words echo last week’s finding by a United Nations expert panel that Israel’s annihilation of Gaza is “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”
The International Court of Justice—a U.N. organ—is currently weighing a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel backed by more than 30 nations and regional blocs as well as hundreds of groups and experts around the world.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three former Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination.
Many jurists, scholars, and other experts—including some of Israel’s leading Holocaust historians—have called Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza genocide. Early in the war, Raz Segal—an Israeli historian and professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey—called Israel’s Gaza onslaught “a textbook case of genocide.”
Many Palestinian Christians have been killed, injured, or otherwise harmed by Israeli forces during the bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza. With just 800 to 1,000 people believed remaining in Gaza, members of the world’s oldest Christian community warned early in the war that they were “under threat of extinction.”
In their most infamous attack on Gaza Christians, Israeli forces bombed the 12th century Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, Gaza’s oldest, in October 2023, killing 18 Palestinians including numerous children. Among the victims were two women and an infant related to former Republican U.S. Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.
After an Israeli sniper fatally shot an elderly woman and her daughter on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City last December, Pope Francis condemned what he called an act of “terrorism.”
Amid the death and destruction wrought by Israel’s assault on Gaza, last December’s Christmas celebrations were canceled in Bethlehem, the purported birthplace of Jesus Christ.
“How can we celebrate when we feel this war—this genocide—that is taking place could resume at any moment?” asked Palestinian Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac at the time.
The bodies of victims of the October 31, 2023 Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip are lined up outside the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City. (Photo: Fadi Alwhidi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“This complaint is not only the largest ever submitted to the ICC, but it is also a milestone in documenting Israeli war crimes for future generations.”
A Belgium-based advocacy group on Tuesday announced it “filed an unprecedented and historic complaint with the International Criminal Court against 1,000 Israeli occupation forces soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza,” where more than 150,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded and millions more displaced, starved, and sickened by Israel’s yearlong onslaught.
The Hind Rajab Foundation—named after the 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in January along with half a dozen relatives and rescue workers by Israeli troops invading Gaza in retaliation for the October 2023 Hamas-led attack—said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel identified by name in the International Criminal Court (ICC) complaint “are accused of participating in systematic attacks against civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
“This complaint, supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence—including videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation—demonstrates the soldiers’ direct involvement in these atrocities,” the group explained. “All of the named soldiers were located in Gaza during the genocidal assault, and the evidence reveals their participation in violations of international law.”
The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed an International Criminal Court complaint against 1000+ Israeli soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Says complaint includes 8000+ pieces of evidence demonstrating soldiers' "direct involvement in these atrocities." pic.twitter.com/picUoiVzp4
Destruction of civilian infrastructure: Targeted attacks on homes, hospitals, schools, markets, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure.
Illegal occupation and looting: Soldiers were documented occupying civilian homes, looting personal belongings, and exploiting occupied properties.
Participation in the Gaza blockade: The soldiers played an active role in enforcing a blockade that deprived civilians of essential goods such as food, water, and medical supplies.
Targeting civilians: Audio and video evidence show soldiers deliberately attacking noncombatant individuals, including medical personnel and journalists.
Use of inhumane warfare tactics: Indiscriminate bombing campaigns, starvation, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure were all part of their actions.
The IDF soldiers identified in the complaint include at least 12 American, 12 French, four Canadian, three British, and two Dutch nationals.
“This complaint is not only the largest ever submitted to the ICC, but it is also a milestone in documenting Israeli war crimes for future generations,” the Hind Rajab Foundation said. “By meticulously identifying the perpetrators and detailing their crimes, we are establishing a historical record that will ensure the individuals responsible are remembered and held accountable.”
“The submission of this complaint represents a significant moment in the fight for justice,” the group continued. “We honor the memory of Hind Rajab and the countless victims who have perished in the ongoing genocide. Their stories will not be forgotten, and their voices will be heard through our persistent legal action.”
The foundation added that the complaint “supports the efforts” of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan—who is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders—and “pushes for immediate action, including the issuance of arrest warrants for those responsible.”
“We believe this complaint marks a turning point in the global fight to bring justice to Palestine,” the group asserted.
The complaint’s filing came amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. In recent weeks, Israel has escalated attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, killing and injuring thousands of people and threatening to plunge the Middle East into a wider war.
The filing also came on the same day that Sky News published an investigation confirming that IDF officials lied when repeatedly claiming there were no Israeli troops near the site of Rajab’s killing at the time of the attack. The British network published satellite images showing numerous IDF vehicles nearby and interviewed military experts who identified damage done by bullets and tank rounds to the vehicle in which the family was traveling.
254 days ago five year old Hind Rajab was killed while trying to flee with her family in Gaza. Her heartbreaking phone call with emergency services was heard around the world.
The IDF deny being in the area. A press release published two weeks later and found by our Sky team… pic.twitter.com/bcUuz0tA3U
The car was hit multiple times. Hind Rajab and her 15-year-old cousin Layan were the last survivors. In one recorded phone conversation with Rajab’s mother before the two children were killed Layan said, “The tanks are next to us.”
Hamas has no tanks.
The Sky News investigation was at least the second journalistic probe that concluded Israeli officials are not telling the truth about the attack.
In June, the U.K. research agency Forensic Architecture collaborated with Al Jazeera journalists and the advocacy group Earshot to publish an analysis that found Israeli tank fire likely fired the bullets that killed Rajab, her relatives, and two paramedics trying to rescue them in an ambulance that was blown to pieces despite receiving IDF permission to proceed with the rescue shortly before being attacked.
Mourning Palestinian men carry the body of UNRWA staffer Yaser Abu Sharar after he was killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on September 11, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children. No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared.”
The United Nations relief agency for Palestine said Wednesday that six of its workers are among the at least 18 people killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes targeting a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the Israeli strikes on one of its schools, located in Nuseirat in central Gaza, resulted in “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident” since Israeli forces began bombarding the strip following last October’s Hamas-led attack on Israel.
“Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people,” the agency said. “Sincere condolences to their families and loved ones. This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.”
Victims of the strikes included women and children.
Another school sheltering displaced people hit in Nuseirat today. Among the people killed are six @UNRWA staff working & providing support to families who have sought refuge in the school.
Earlier on Wednesday the United Nations said the school had been “previously deconflicted with the Israeli forces.”
“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared,” UNRWA stressed. “Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”
Responding to the attacks, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on social media that “these dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. body. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is also seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated.
Over the past 341 days, Israel’s assault on Gaza has left more than 145,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to Palestinian and international officials. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, while Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza has starved and sickened millions of Palestinians, dozens of whom have died of malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care.
UNRWA says around 200 of its staff members have been killed in more than 450 Israeli attacks on agency facilities since October. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter under the U.N. flag.
Responding to Israeli claims—reportedly extracted from Palestinian prisoners in an interrogation regime rife with torture and abuse—that a dozen of the more than 13,000 UNRWA workers in Gaza were involved in the October 7 attack, numerous nations including the United States cut off funding to the agency. Almost all of them have restored funding as Israeli lies have been debunked.
Bucking this trend, U.S. President Joe Biden in March signed a bill prohibiting American funding for UNRWA.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) visit the site of a shooting in Hebron, West Bank on August 21, 2023. (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims,” the chief prosecutor wrote.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor argued in a Friday filing that pretrial judges have the jurisdiction to rule on the arrest warrants he is seeking for Israeli and Hamas leaders and must “urgently render its decisions.”
The October 7 attack and Israel’s retaliation in the Gaza Strip led the ICC’s Karim Khan to apply for warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas leaders—Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known Deif), Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Sinwar—in May. Since then, Israel has assassinated Haniyeh and also claimed to have killed Deif, which Hamas denies.
The Associated Pressreported that Khan’s new brief “came in response to legal arguments filed by dozens of countries, academics, victims’ groups, and rights groups either rejecting or supporting the court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.”
The prosecutor wrote that “Israel has occupied Palestine since 1967,” and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last month that “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT),” which includes Gaza, “is unlawful.”
“It is settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation,” the prosecutor asserted, citing a February 2021 decision. “Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims.”
“The situation in the OPT, including Gaza, is catastrophic, owing in large part to the ongoing criminality described in the applications,” he added. “The issuance of the requested arrest warrants could avert further harm to the victims who remain in Gaza and to those who were forced to leave but continue to suffer physical and mental harm.”
The Hamas-led October attack on Israel killed over 1,100 people and militants took over 240 others hostage, more than 100 of whom remain in Gaza. Since then, the Israel Defense Forces has slaughtered at least 40,265 Palestinians and injured another 93,144, according to local officials, while leveling civilian infrastructure across the coastal enclave.
The AP noted that “Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.”
U.S. political leaders including President Joe Biden have faced criticism for not only giving Israel billions of dollars in weapons to wage war but also condemning the ICC prosecutor’s pursuit of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
In addition to the potential ICC warrants, Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the ICJ.
