ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas Leader Sinwar

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, a move that Israeli officials have warned could scuttle efforts to end the conflict in the enclave.

An ICC court would need to decide whether to issue a warrant for their arrests. The court’s prosecutor said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that” Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for a series of “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” committed since at least Oct. 8, the day after the Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Among the alleged crimes the court listed against the Israeli leaders was the willful killing of civilians, starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and persecution as a crime against humanity. More than 35,000 people have died in Gaza since the outbreak of fighting last year, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian officials. The figure doesn’t specify how many were combatants.