Context

Recently, the Chief Prosecutor of the world’s top war crimes court International Criminal Court (ICC) sought arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over actions taken during their seven-month war.

Why ICC Seeking Arrest Warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders?

• Condition for Requesting Warrant:  A panel of three judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions.
• Implication for Israel:  Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Israeli leader’s do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. 
  • But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad
• Response of Israel & US: Both condemned the prosecutor’s accusations against them were a “disgrace,” and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.
  • Israel said it fights with “one of the strictest” moral codes and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself.
• Response of Hamas: Hamas also denounced the ICC prosecutor’s actions, saying the request to arrest its leaders “equates the victim with the executioner.
• Local Demonstration in Israel to End the War : Netanyahu has come under heavy pressure at home to end the war. 
  • Thousands of Israelis have joined weekly demonstrations calling on the government to reach a deal to bring home Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, fearing that time is running out.

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Reason Behind world’s top war court to sought arrest warrants

• Humanitarian Crisis : The Israeli offensive has also triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, displacing roughly 80% of the population and leaving hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation.
• Against the civilian population : The effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known. 
  • They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.
• Impediment to Deliver Humanitarian Aid : The United Nations and other aid agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of hindering aid deliveries throughout the war.
  • Their aid workers have repeatedly come under Israeli fire, and 
  • The ongoing fighting and a security vacuum have impeded deliveries.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

• It is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). 
  • It is a permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. 
    • It intervenes only when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.
    • It is Headquartered at Hague, Netherland
• It  was adopted in July 1998 and entered into force in July 2002. 
• The ICC is independent of the United Nations (UN), but is endorsed by the UN General Assembly. 
• It also maintains a cooperation agreement with the UN. Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is an organ of the UN, the ICC does not prosecute states.
• The ICC is an intergovernmental organization with 123 member states. 
  • Dozens of countries don’t accept the court’s jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide and other crimes. They include Israel, the United States, Russia,Qatar and China.
  • India is not a member state of the ICC, and has never signed its core treaty, the ‘Rome Statute’. 
  • The ICC accepted “The State of Palestine” as a member in 2015, a year after the Palestinians accepted the court’s jurisdiction. 
• In 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump authorized economic and travel sanctions on the ICC prosecutor and another senior prosecutor.
  • The ICC staff were looking into U.S. and allies’ troops for possible war crimes in Afghanistan. Biden lifted the sanctions in 2021. 
• Last year, the court issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. 
  • Russia responded by issuing its own arrest warrants for ICC prosecutors and  judges.