Context: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. 

• This decision is linked to Israel's military actions, especially after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, with charges including murder, persecution, and using starvation as a weapon of war.

What is the ICC?

• Located in: The Hague, Netherlands

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established July 17, 1998, under the Rome Statute, an international treaty, and came into force in July 2002.

• It prosecutes individuals for crimes like genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.

• Types of Crimes: The Court's founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes:

1. Crimes against humanity

2. Genocide

3. Crimes of aggression

4. War crimes

• The court does not have its own policing body and relies on other countries for support in "making arrests, transferring arrested persons to the ICC detention centre in The Hague, freezing suspects' assets, and enforcing sentences.

• Under the Rome Statue, ICC member states are obligated to arrest a person who is in their territory and subject to an arrest warrant.

• The ICC has 124 state parties, including 33 from Africa, 19 from Eastern Europe and 25 from Western Europe and others such as Canada.

• The United States is not a state party and neither is Israel. Though Israel is not a member of the Rome Statute, the court has jurisdiction over this case due to Palestine’s status and the context of the situation.

• Russia and Ukraine are also not members of the ICC.

The Arrest Warrants

• The ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu, Israel's former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.The warrants cite crimes related to Israel’s actions in Gaza after Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023. The specific crimes include murder, persecution, and using starvation as a weapon.

• Israel's Position: Israel rejects the ICC’s jurisdiction, as it is not a member of the Rome Statute. It argues that it has the right to self-defense and refuses to recognize the ICC’s authority over its actions.

• International Reactions:The United States and Israel's allies reject the ICC’s ruling, arguing that the court lacks jurisdiction and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.

• Human rights groups and some countries, like Turkey, support the arrest warrants, seeing them as important for justice.

• Some countries, including the Netherlands, say they will comply with the ICC's ruling, while others, like the UK, express support for Israel’s self-defense.

Impact of the Warrants

• While Israel does not recognize the ICC, the warrants could affect Netanyahu’s ability to travel internationally. If he travels to any of the 124 countries that are part of the Rome Statute, he could face arrest.

• However, enforcement of such warrants can be inconsistent, as some countries have previously failed to arrest individuals under similar warrants.

• The warrants may not lead to immediate arrests, as the ICC does not typically prosecute individuals in absentia unless in rare circumstances.

Crimes

• Genocide: The crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

• Crimes against humanity: They are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population.

• The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.

• War crimes: They are grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict and include, for instance,

• the use of child soldiers

• the killing or torture of persons such as civilians or prisoners of war

• intentionally directing attacks against hospitals, historic monuments, or buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes

• Crime of aggression. It is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State. The definition of this crime was adopted through amending the Rome Statute at the first Review Conference of the Statute in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010.