(NewsNation) — Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may soon have an arrest warrant with their names on it if the International Criminal Court succeeds in charging the two with war crimes and crimes against humanity amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday he is applying for arrest warrants, saying he believes Netanyahu, his defense minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
In addition to Sinwar, Netanyahu and Gallant, Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader of the Al Qassem Brigades Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri and Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
It will be the first time in history that the ICC has targeted a top leader of a United States ally.
Speaking of the Israeli actions, Khan said in a statement that “the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known. … They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.”
The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters released a statement in the wake of the announcement:
“The Families Forum applauds the issuance of warrants against senior Hamas officials, which serves as further recognition of the crimes against humanity they committed on October 7th and continue to perpetrate. 128 innocent hostages from 24 nations remain captive in Hamas tunnels, where they suffer daily physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
The Families Forum is not comfortable with the equivalence drawn between Israel’s leadership and the terrorists of Hamas. We believe the way to prove this distinction to the world is by immediately entering into negotiations that will free the hostages – the living for rehabilitation, and the deceased for burial.”
The decision comes after Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. Mourners gathered Sunday for the funeral of one of four hostages killed in the attack whose bodies were recently found by Israeli troops in Gaza.
Of the Hamas actions on Oct. 7, Khan said that he saw for himself “the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the unconscionable crimes charged in the applications filed today. Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability.”
The war has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced within the territory, often multiple times.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high death toll on Hamas, which it says operates in dense residential areas.
Netanyahu’s critics, including thousands of Israeli protesters, accuse him of prolonging the war and rejecting a cease-fire deal so he can avoid a reckoning over security failures. They also seek early elections in which polls show that Gantz, a political centrist, would likely succeed Netanyahu. That would expose Netanyahu to prosecution on longstanding corruption allegations.
Netanyahu denies any political motives and says the offensive must continue until Hamas is dismantled and the estimated 100 hostages still held with the remains of more than 30 others are returned.
Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the U.S. has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.