International Criminal Court issues criminal indictments and arrest warrants for Netanyahu & Gallant

ICC rejected Israel’s challenges to its jurisdiction, and also issued a warrant for a top Hamas official. Its chief prosecutor had sought the arrests for war crimes in Gaza.

Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.

NY Times coverage

Al Jazeera coverage

Reuters coverage

NBC News coverage

ICC press release

Chronological data is on Wikipedia

The International Criminal Court rejected Israel’s challenges to its jurisdiction, and also issued a warrant for a top Hamas official. Its chief prosecutor had sought the arrests for war crimes in Gaza. In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza." The court does not have its own police force to carry out arrests and relies on its 124 member states for that. Whether they are arrested or not depends on the member states. They have an obligation to do so but the court has only limited diplomatic means to force them if they do not want to.

Good morning,

Some unusual news with Pluto in the first arc minutes of Aquarius: ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

May I enlist your help with two things: one, what time were the warrants issued? It was earlier than 8 am EST; location will be The Hague. And two: collecting primary and secondary sources in the comments.

The warrants have not been released. The time could possibly be ascertained from the ICC’s website or from media coverage. The time of the earliest announcement is also a valid time to work with.

Thank you.

I am busy with tonight’s Planet Waves publication.

I realize there will also be discussion about the court and its usefulness. Even if this is a symbolic gesture, it’s not a good look for Israel.