ISRAELI prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas terror master Yahya Sinwar were both facing arrest on war crime charges proposed yesterday.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court lodged a formal application for arrest warrants for both men, along with senior figures.
Prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to move against Netanyahu sparked outrage across Israel, with one minister branding it “a distortion of justice.”
Arrest applications were also submitted for Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh and military chief Mohammed Deif.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz raged: “While Hamas murderers and rapists commit crimes against humanity, the prosecutor mentions in the same breath the prime minister and defence minister of Israel alongside the vile Nazi-like monsters of Hamas – a historical disgrace that will be remembered forever,”
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz added: “The State of Israel is waging one of the just wars fought in modern history following a massacre perpetrated by terrorist Hamas on October 7.
“The prosecutor’s position to apply for arrest warrants is in itself a crime of historic proportion.”
But Mr Khan KC said there were reasonable grounds to believe all five men named were guilty of crimes against humanity since the October 7 massacres which detonated the bloody Gaza War.
The ICC – based in The Hague – has been investigating Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the occupied territories for the past three years.
But recent focus has fallen on the Hamas horror which claimed 1,200 lives and Israel’s brutal response in Gaza, said to have killed more than 35,000.
Netanyahu, 74, and Gallant, 65, face arrest for the crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
October 7 mastermind Sinwar, 61, Deif, 58 and Haniyeh, 62, stand accused of war crimes including: murder, hostage taking, rape, sexual violence, torture and cruelty.
ICC judges will now decide, within weeks, whether there is enough evidence to issue arrest warrants for the accused men on both sides of the conflict.
And if warrants are issued, Netanyahu could find himself effectively barred from scores of nations – including the UK which is a member of the ICC.
Authorities in nations signed up to the ICC are duty bound to act upon arrest warrants and detain suspects entering member states – which do not include either Israel or the US.
Mr Khan’s announcement deepens Israel’s isolation amid global opposition to its military push into the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Rafah in southern Gaza.
Hamas accused the ICC of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner” and said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance.”
Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza’s terror tunnel network Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Iran-backed group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels.
Ceasefire talks in Qatar remained deadlocked amid growing concern for around 100 Israeli hostages still being held in appalling conditions in blitzed Gaza.
Accusing Sinwar and his cohorts, Mr Khan – who interviewed kibbutz massacre survivors – said: “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.
“My Office also submits there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages taken from Israel have been kept in inhumane conditions, and that some have been subject to sexual violence, including rape, while in captivity.”
Mr Khan said in his statement accusing Netanyahu and Gallant: “Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.
“My Office submits that these acts were committed as part of a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population, whom they perceived as a threat to Israel.”
Oct 7, 2023: Hamas gunmen launch horror attack killing thousands of innocent civilians and taking hostages
Oct 7, 2023: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war and prepares revenge airstrikes on Gaza
Oct 13, 2023: Israel tells residents of Gaza City to move south along the Gaza Strip
Oct 19, 2023: Yemen’s Houthi terror groups start attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea linked to Israel including US and UK vessels
Oct 21, 2023: Aid trucks are sent through the Rafah border into Gaza
Oct 27, 2023: Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza
Nov 1, 2023: People try to evacuate Gaza completely as war ramps up but many forced to stay
Nov 15, 2023: Israeli troops enter Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al Shifa, after a siege of several days as they believe Hamas are working inside
Nov 21, 2023: Israel and Hamas announce a ceasefire to last seven days and see the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners
Nov 2023: Truce ends with only half of hostages returned
Dec 1, 2023: Fighting starts up again with first round of airstrikes in weeks
Dec 4, 2023: Israeli forces launch huge ground assault in southern Gaza, towards the main southern city of Khan Younis
Dec 12, 2023: Countries call on Israel to find a new ceasefire deal to stop civilian casualties
Jan 11, 2024: US and British warplanes, ships and submarines launch retaliatory strikes across Yemen
Feb 29, 2024: More than 100 Gazans die as they queued for humanitarian aid with Israel and Hamas having different views on what happened
April 1, 2024: Israeli air strikes kill seven aid workers for the World Central Kitchen charity
April 1, 2024: Iran’s embassy hit in Damascus by a suspected Israeli airstrike killing several military officers and a top general
April 13, 2024: Tehran responds to the embassy strike by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel but most are intercepted
April 19, 2024: Israel hits back at Iran with precision strike near a nuclear site in Isfahan
April 23, 2024: Israel gear up for six-week assault on Rafah
April 24, 2024: Hostage claims 70 people held captive have died after being bombed
April 29, 2024: Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu could be issued with an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza
May 4, 2024: Ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas for 40-days
