International Criminal Court Seeks Netanyahus Arrest Over Gaza War

The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and dealing an extraordinary blow to Israel’s global standing as it presses on with wars on multiple fronts.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief, Muhammad Deif, accusing him, too, of crimes against humanity, including murder, hostage taking and sexual violence. Israel has said that it killed Mr. Deif in an airstrike, but the court said it could not determine whether he was dead.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant are unlikely to find themselves in a courtroom standing trial on the charges anytime soon. The court has no police force to make arrests and neither Israel nor its chief ally, the United States, is among its member nations. But the order carries significant moral weight, it is likely to restrict the leaders’ travel around the world, and it further isolates Israel as it prosecutes wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The court did not release the warrants, but it said in a news release that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant “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.”

It also said there was reason to believe that they impeded humanitarian aid for Gazans in violation of international law.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office swiftly rejected what it called “absurd and false accusations,” insisting that Israel would keep fighting in Gaza to defend its citizens. The Israeli leader “will not surrender to the pressures; he will not recoil or withdraw until all of the war’s goals — that were set at the start of the battle — are achieved,” his office said in a statement.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant now face the risk of arrest if they travel to one of the court’s 124 member nations, which include most European countries. They join the ranks of other leaders — for the most part despots — who have been charged by the court, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.

The United States firmly rejected the court’s action. A spokesman for the National Security Council said that the court had no jurisdiction in this case, and that discussions were underway with Israeli officials on “next steps.”

“The United States fundamentally rejects the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials,” the spokesman said in a statement. “We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision.”

But many countries, including allies of Israel, said they would respect the court’s order.

“The decision of the court has to be respected and implemented,” the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, told reporters in Amman, Jordan. “This decision is a binding decision on all state parties of the court, which includes all members of the European Union.”

In Gaza, Palestinians welcomed the arrest warrants, saying they brought some rare hope to the battered enclave.

“We felt some peace in our hearts upon hearing the news,” said Husam Skeek, a community and tribal leader from Gaza City. “We urge countries to implement this decision and hope that America does not use its influence to prevent the implementation of this decision.”

In explaining the warrants, the court said that restrictions on aid and cutoffs of electricity and fuel supplies “had a severe impact on the availability of water in Gaza and the ability of hospitals to provide medical care.” It said that when decisions to increase the flow of aid were made, they were often conditional and done in response to international pressure.

Earlier this month, a U.N. panel warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza, where for weeks Israeli forces have been conducting an operation that the military says is aimed at preventing Hamas from re-establishing a foothold.

The court said Thursday that it could not determine “that all elements” of the crime of extermination had been met. In January, the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, allowed a case charging Israel with genocide to proceed, and said Israel must take action to prevent acts of genocide by its forces in Gaza.

The arrest warrants amounted to the first time that leaders of a modern Western democracy have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body.

The first international criminal tribunals were established after World War II, when the Allied powers established the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to prosecute Nazi and Japanese leaders for war crimes and other atrocities. Since then, international tribunals have prosecuted such leaders as Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader imprisoned for abuses committed during the 1990s Balkans war.

The warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant may be interpreted by many countries in the global south as a sign that international institutions are no longer necessarily the tools of Western powers.

The court initially sought arrest warrants not only for the Israeli officials but also for three leaders of Hamas. The militant group set off the war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands, by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But two of the men for whom warrants were sought, Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in recent months.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant have had policy differences over the war but the court made no distinction between the two men. Just two weeks ago, Mr. Netanyahu fired Mr. Gallant, a move that set off protests across Israel.

Mr. Gallant had been pushing for an immediate cease-fire deal that would secure the release of hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7 and still being held in Gaza, and his dismissal removed the main proponent in the Israeli government for such an agreement. The two also clashed over domestic issues, particularly the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

But on Thursday, the international court’s decision to issue arrest warrants prompted a rare display of unity among Israeli leaders across the political spectrum. Politicians from both the governing coalition and the opposition denounced the court. Yair Lapid, the leader of the political opposition and a fierce critic of Mr. Netanyahu, called the warrants “a prize for terror.”

The nations that are signatories to the court are formally committed to carrying out the arrest warrants if Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant or any other wanted person steps on their soil, even unintentionally, for example if a plane malfunction requires an unscheduled landing.

The arrest warrants “are binding on all parties to the I.C.C.,” said Philippe Sands, an expert in international law who has argued before the court. “If they set foot on the territory of a state party, that state party has an obligation to arrest and transfer to The Hague. That’s pretty binding.”

But the limits of the court’s reach were made clear in September when Mr. Putin visited Mongolia, a signatory to the court, and was not arrested.

The arrest warrants issued on Thursday were requested by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, in May. Since then, Mr. Khan has come under scrutiny. Earlier this month, the court said it was commissioning an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Reporting was contributed by Marlise Simons, Ephrat Livni, Raja Abdulrahim, Bilal Shbair, Zach Montague, Johnatan Reiss, Eve Sampson, Cassandra Vinograd and Adam Rasgon.