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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 related to the October 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan disclosed this in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
Khan mentioned that the ICC is also pursuing warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and two other senior Hamas leaders: Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, leader of the Al Qassem Brigades (also known as Mohammed Deif), and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader. This marks the first time the ICC has targeted a top leader of a close U.S. ally, placing Netanyahu in a similar position to Russian President Vladimir Putin, against whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over the Ukraine conflict.
A panel of ICC judges will now review Khan’s request for these arrest warrants.
The charges against Sinwar, Haniyeh, and al-Masri include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention,” according to Khan. He emphasized the global shock on October 7, when individuals were violently taken from their homes in Israel, causing immense suffering.
Netanyahu and Gallant face charges of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” Khan added.
