Featured expert: Diana Buttu, Human rights attorney and political analyst, former advisor to Palestinian Authority President and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian negotiators, and Palestinian citizen of Israel. 

Question: On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza. What exactly is the ICC charging them with?

Diana Buttu: While the details of the warrants are secret to protect witnesses and safeguard the conduct of the investigations, they are being charged with using starvation as a method of warfare, with murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population. This of course comes following the International Court of Justice ruling earlier this year that found Israel may be guilty of genocide in Gaza. 

The ICC noted that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least October 8, 2023 to May 20, 2024.  

They have done this by impeding the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid, cutting electricity and reducing fuel supplies so as to restrict the flow of water and the ability of hospitals to function and provide care to people. At the same time, the Israeli military has systematically targeted the healthcare system, bombing hospitals, killing, imprisoning and torturing doctors and other medical workers. 

It should be noted that the Court did not look into what Israel has since done in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel has blocked food and other supplies for nearly two months now in an ongoing effort to depopulate the area and drive the Palestinians remaining there to the south.

While these are serious crimes Netanyahu and Gallant have been charged with - and indeed merit both being prosecuted - there are other crimes that the ICC has not yet charged them with, including genocide. It is important to remember that this is only from the period of October 2023 to May 2024 and there are opportunities for the court to tack on more charges.
 

Q: How significant is this decision, and do you think Netanyahu and Gallant will face any real consequences? 

DB: It is very significant that the ICC has finally issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and there will be concrete consequences for them both. 

According to the ICC rules, all countries that are signatories to the Court must “comply with requests for arrest and surrender” when a wanted individual is found on their territory. A number of countries have already indicated they will respect the Court’s decision, including Canada, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Lithuania, South Africa, Turkey, and Jordan. This means that it will be difficult for Netanyahu or Gallant to travel abroad without facing arrest. It is also questionable whether they will be able to use the airspace of the countries who have said that they will respect the Court’s decision. 

Second, I think it will be difficult for countries to continue to work with or supply weapons to, or even engage in free trade with Israel, when the head of its government is wanted for war crimes. More importantly, the moral stain of these Israeli leaders being charged with war crimes cannot be easily removed. Netanyahu and Gallant now join the ranks of other notorious war criminals and will forever live as fugitives from justice, assuming they never face trial. 

As for the US government, it of course exists in a completely alternative reality. Unlike the countries that have said they will respect the warrants, the US - the largest supplier of weapons to Israel and its primary diplomatic backer - has gone the opposite route, denouncing the decision and passing legislation to sanction the ICC, with Senator Lindsey Graham even threatening to sanction US allies if they enforce the warrants. In the process, the US is undermining the international legal order and human rights law put in place after World War II and revealing its hypocrisy in supporting the ICC when it charges the likes of Putin for invading Ukraine but condemning it when it charges Israeli leaders for their crimes.
 

Q: What impact, if any, do you think the issuance of the warrants will have on Israel’s actions in Gaza?

DB: This depends entirely on whether Israel’s Western backers, first and foremost the US, continue to supply it with weapons or demand that it end the genocide. 

The arrest warrants may lead to some Israeli soldiers refusing to serve or to carry out illegal orders, but given the low rate of refusal currently, despite clear evidence of widespread war crimes committed by the Israeli military, this is unlikely to occur in significant numbers. 

Left on his own, Netanyahu will not stop. To the contrary, he will probably intensify Israel’s attacks in Gaza, just as he did after the announcement by the ICC chief prosecutor that he had requested the warrants last spring. This is when we saw an intensified invasion of Rafah, more bombings of hospitals and schools sheltering displaced people, and the north completely severed from the rest of Gaza. 

However, if the U.S. and other Western governments stop the flow of weapons, Israel will have little choice but to stop, given how reliant it is on arms from those countries.