Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu (right) and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
South Africa’s Justice Minister, Thembi Simelane, has called on signatories to the Rome Statute to abide by their obligations under international law and enforce the arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The warrants were issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday and mean that the two will be arrested and brought to trial should they travel to any of the 124 countries who have signed and ratified the ICC statute.
They increase pressure on the Zionist state, and the isolation of its political leadership, which has been accused of waging war against the civilian population of Gaza and the West Bank. The move will also add impetus to calls for sanctions against Israel within the international community.
While the United States, Israel’s staunchest backer, is not a signatory, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada are and will have to take action against the two should they set foot in their countries.
A warrant was also issued against Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Deif, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on Israeli territory and in Palestine since 7 October last year.
Deif was one of the masterminds of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which about 1 200 people, more than 800 of them civilians, were killed. At least 250 people were abducted and taken to Gaza as hostages. Nearly 100 of them are still in captivity.
The crimes committed include murder, hostage-taking and sexual violence against women and girls, all of which constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
It is not clear at this point whether Deif is still alive. Israel claimed that he had been killed in an air raid in southern Gaza on 13 July, but this had not been confirmed by Hamas.
Simelane welcomed the issue of the warrants, describing it as a “decisive step” towards holding those responsible for war crimes to account.
“The ICC’s warrants mark a critical moment in addressing decades of impunity surrounding serious violations in Palestine,” she said, noting that the findings provide compelling evidence that Netanyahu and Gallant had intentionally deprived the civilian population of Gaza of essential resources, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
“Their actions, which obstructed humanitarian aid and exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis, constitute serious breaches of international humanitarian law,” Simelane added.
“This step by the ICC is a vindication of South Africa’s position, which has been canvassed extensively before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The international community can no longer ignore the glaring evidence of genocide and systemic violations of international law in Gaza.”
She said South Africa’s submissions to the ICC had strengthened the case that Israel’s actions met the definition of genocide under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Simelane was confident that the states that are party to the Rome Statute would fulfil their legal obligations and enforce the ICC warrant. She urged non-signatory states to “act in accordance with their moral responsibilities to support the ICC in ensuring accountability”.
She said South Africa reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire, the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid and the commencement of a political process to secure just and lasting peace in the region.
“The international community cannot turn a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of innocent civilians, including women, children and humanitarian workers.
“No individual, government official or even a nation state is considered to be above the rules established by international laws and conventions. The ICC’s action sends a powerful message that accountability is not optional but a cornerstone of a just and equitable global order.”
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola also welcomed the issuing of the warrants, saying they marked a “significant step towards justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Palestine”.
His spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, said South Africa urged all state parties to act in accordance with their obligations in the Rome Statue and called on the global community to uphold the rule of law and ensure accountability for human rights violations.
The ICC chamber issued the warrants for Netanhau and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed from 8 October last year to 20 May 2024, the date on which the prosecution filed the applications for them.
It did so after considering — and dismissing — arguments by Israel that the court did not have jurisdiction over them. An earlier sitting had confirmed that it did have powers relating to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The chamber found “reasonable grounds” to believe the two each bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
It also found reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility, as “civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.
There were reasonable grounds to believe Netanhau 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”.
This was based on their actions impending humanitarian aid, in violation of international law, and their failure to facilitate relief.
“Their conduct led to the disruption of the ability of humanitarian organisations to provide food and other essential goods to the population in need in Gaza,” the ICC said in a statement.
“The aforementioned restrictions together with cutting off electricity and reducing fuel supply also had a severe impact on the availability of water in Gaza and the ability of hospitals to provide medical care.”
The chamber noted that Israel’s decision to allow humanitarian assistance was often conditional and was only made in response to pressure from the international community or requests by the US.
There were also reasonable grounds to believe there was no clear military need or justification for the restrictions Israel had placed on aid, which were imposed despite appeals and warnings from the UN and other bodies.
“In this regard, the chamber considered the prolonged period of deprivation and Mr Netanyahu’s statement connecting the halt in the essential goods and humanitarian aid with the goals of war. The chamber therefore found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare,’ the ICC said.
There was evidence that Israel’s blocking of food, water, medical supplies and electricity “created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which resulted in the death of civilians, including children due to malnutrition and dehydration”.
While it could not determine that all the elements of the crime of extermination by Israel were present in the evidence presented by the prosecution, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of murder was committed in relation to these victims”.
By intentionally limiting or preventing medical supplies and medicine from getting into Gaza, in particular anaesthetics and anaesthesia machines, Gallant and Netanyahu were responsible for “inflicting great suffering by means of inhumane acts on persons in need of treatment”.
“Doctors were forced to operate on wounded persons and carry out amputations, including on children, without anaesthetics, and/or were forced to use inadequate and unsafe means to sedate patients, causing these persons extreme pain and suffering. This amounts to the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts,” it said.
The chamber found reasonable grounds of the crime against humanity of persecution against the civilian population of their fundamental rights, including the right to life, and was targeted based on their nationality.
South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks said the organisation “unapologetically condemns” the “baseless, flawed and shameful” warrant of arrest against Netanyahu and Gallant.
She said the ICC was being wielded as a “political tool” against Israel which had merely acted in self-defence following the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.
“This is the first time the ICC has targeted leaders of a Western democratic state, creating a dangerous precedent for when other sovereign countries may come under attack by an adversary in the near future and would require taking the necessary military steps to defend themselves,” Marks added.
The federation said the warrants had been spearheaded by prosecutor Karim Khan, who is “known for his hostility against Israel alongside his panel of anti-Israel advisers” and who is facing allegations of sexual assault.
The warrants demonstrated “critical jurisdictional and procedural flaws” because Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, placing it outside ICC jurisdiction, the federation said, adding that they also contravened UN Charter Article 51 principles on sovereign self-defence rights.
“They fail to acknowledge the fundamental difference between military operations conducted with civilian protection protocols and the deliberate exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” the federation said.
This “false equivalence” undermined the core principles of international humanitarian law and disregarded the established legal framework that distinguishes between lawful military operations and terrorist acts.
“These acts represent a concerning departure from established international legal principles and precedents. It has transformed the ICC from an instrument of justice into a political tool, severely compromising its ability to address genuine violations of international law.”
Marks added that “the warrants remain a mockery of international law, and only seek to punish Israeli leaders for taking the necessary steps to defend their country and its citizens from multiple hostile players in the region that have made the destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jewish people central to their existence”.
“The facts are simple; Israel came under attack by the bloodthirsty terrorist group, Hamas, on 7 October 2023, when they not only invaded Israel’s sovereignty by murdering innocent Israeli civilians in their own homes, but also abducted hundreds of Israelis, taking them back into the Gaza Strip,” Marks said.
The federation said it was “laughable that the ICC attempts to make a false moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas, by also issuing a warrant for Hamas’s Mohammed Deif, the mastermind behind the 7 October attacks, who is already dead and cannot answer for his heinous crimes”.
“History will look very unkindly upon those who fail to stand up for a people that have suffered violent and bloody persecution since the beginning of humankind,” Marks said.
South African Muslim network spokesperson Faisal Suliman welcomed the warrants and praised the South African government and ANC for pursuing the case at the ICJ. But he said it was unlikely the arrests would be effected.
“It’s a pity that the machinations within the ICJ, especially by the previous presiding judge, as well as pressures on the ICJ from the United States in particular and other Western countries to obfuscate the process, has led to a few more thousand people being massacred,” Suliman said.
He said the ICJ had “equated the oppressor with the oppressed”.
“Since 1948, Israel has pursued a well-recognised and common cause policy of displacing, oppressing, and occupying more and more Palestinians land. Since 1984 Gaza has been in a complete blockade, with Israel controlling everything that enters Gaza and restricting food aid, even water and electricity. It blocked off the seas so the Gazans could have no fishing. They can have no international ships or boats or aid arriving by sea,” Suliman said.
He said the events of 7 October 2023 had not occurred in isolation.
“What is not reported and commonly known is that in the few weeks before 7 October, 250 Palestinians, innocent civilians, had been killed by Israel in Palestine and that the Israeli state [along] with settlers, Zionists, had repeatedly been attacking worshipers in the sacred Al-Aqsa compound, disrupting prayers, tearing up Qur’ans, deliberately walking in with soiled boots into the mosque compound, increasing its tyranny on civilians,” he said.
“Dozens have been starved, humiliated and restricted from movement since 1984 by Israel. International law recognises the right of people under occupation and oppression to resist.”
He said allegations that Hamas had killed babies and raped women and committed other acts, had been proved false.
“To equate the Palestinian leader with Israeli oppressors is more about the politics of the world than about truth and justice. We also know that the UN and the USA will never allow an enforcement of these warrants against the Israelis. However, symbolically it is important,” Suliman said.
He added that the warrant against the Hamas leadership was “unwarranted”.
“Hamas has never committed any act of violence against any Jewish or Zionist person outside of the occupied territories because it has respected rules of engagement.”
“Hamas has never since, 7 October … starved anybody, including the hostages, raped anybody or intentionally attacked any civilian infrastructure. They are a population, under siege, under bombardment, and yet have respected rules of engagement. Israel, on the other hand, one of the most militarised, weaponised states in the world, has done absolutely everything against any civilised norms of the Geneva Convention or any rules of engagement,” Suliman said.