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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with a similar warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif.
The arrest warrants are for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Both Israel and Hamas deny the charges.The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued the arrest warrants on Thursday.
Earlier in May, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif, as well as then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In an interview with CNN, Karim Khan said Sinwar, Haniyeh and Deif were charged with “mass murder, murder, taking hostages, rape and sexual abuse of prisoners” in the attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
The ICC prosecutor also said that the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant included committing mass murder, preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid, using starvation as a weapon of war, and deliberately targeting civilians in the war.
At the end of July, then-Hamas leader Haniyeh was killed in an attack in Iran. Israel claimed that Deif was killed in an airstrike in Gaza the same month. Sinwar became Hamas's leader after Haniyeh. Sinwar was killed in a clash with Israeli forces in Gaza in mid-October.
'No hostage release if the war does not end'
Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, Hamas' acting head in Gaza, Khalil al-Haya, said that there will be no hostage release or prisoner exchange agreement with Israel if the war in the Gaza Strip does not end. He was heard saying this in a speech broadcast on television last Wednesday.
The Hamas leader said on Al-Aqsa TV, affiliated with the organization, that if the aggression does not stop, then why will the resistance fight stop and especially why would Hamas return the hostages? He said, "When the war continues, will any sane person, even a madman, give up such a powerful card in his hand?"