No person or entity immune against ICC rulings, former ICC president

CAIRO – 22 November 2024: The former president of the International Criminal Court [ICC] told al Qahera news channel that Israel's failure to sign the International Criminal Court Convention does not mean that it is not subject to the court’s rulings.

The former president of the International Criminal Court added that the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute must implement the arrest warrants, and that no person or entity enjoys immunity in violations of international law.

He noted that there are expectations that the United States will intervene to disrupt the arrest warrant, however, it is important to quickly implement the arrest decision.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued on Thursday an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamine Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The Pre-trial Chamber 1 of the ICC issued on Thursday the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant for commuting “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.”

“The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” the court said in a statement.

In a statement, the Hamas movement welcomed the court’s decision and called for expanding the scope of accountability against the Israeli officials over war crimes against the Palestinians.

The movement added that this step “constitutes an important historical precedent, and a correction to a long path of historical injustice against our people.”