A prosecutor asks the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, an aide and Hamas leaders
Over the course of Israel’s devastating 7-month-long war with Hamas, a fierce parallel battle has been playing out over various international legal mechanisms for holding individuals accountable.
On Monday, Karim Khan, the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced that he would request arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, the country’s defense minister and three senior figures from the militant Palestinian group Hamas in connection with alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Here is some background about Monday’s move:
Benjamin Netanyahu: The Israeli prime minister, the country’s longest-serving leader and the head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, orchestrated his government’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. Netanyahu has resisted increasing pressure by the Biden administration and governments around the world to halt Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza, which Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas and rescuing scores of people who were taken hostage — but which Palestinians call a genocide.
Yahya Sinwar: A Hamas member since the 1980s who climbed its ranks through a combination of military ingenuity and extreme brutality, Sinwar is considered the prime mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack. After long stints in Israeli military prisons during which he became fluent in Hebrew, he was released in a prisoner swap in 2022. Sinwar, a Gaza native whose family was displaced during Israel’s war of independence, tops Israel’s most-wanted lists but has managed to evade death or capture by taking refuge in Hamas’ underground tunnel network. Israel has called him a “dead man walking.”
Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas’ supreme leader, Haniyeh is based in Qatar, a Gulf state that has aided in mediation efforts. In his capacity as the group’s political chief, he frequently travels around the region. Last month, Haniyeh said three of his sons and four grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. He called them martyrs. The Israeli military said slain sons were members of Hamas’ military wing, which Haniyeh denied.
Mohammed Deif: A top Hamas military commander left maimed by repeated Israeli attempts on his life, Deif is by far the most shadowy figure of those named by the ICC prosecutor. He is known as a longtime overseer of the group’s bomb-making capability, directing dozens of suicide bombings of Israeli buses and cafes in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Yoav Gallant: The Israeli defense minister is a member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party as well as Israel’s so-called war Cabinet formed after Oct. 7. Gallant has come under outside scrutiny for declaring early on in the fighting that Israel would impose a full food and fuel blockade on Gaza as well as his use of the term “human animals,” which Israel said was intended to describe Hamas, not all Palestinians.
