ICC arrest warrants push for justice in Israel-Palestine conflict: Rights group

By Necva Tastan Sevinc

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday described the International Criminal Court's (ICC) issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as an "important" step toward ensuring justice in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Balkees Jarrah, HRW's associate international justice director, welcomed the decision, saying it challenges the notion that some individuals are beyond accountability.

"The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law," she said in a statement.

Jarrah called on the international community to back the ICC in fulfilling its mandate, emphasizing the need for impartial support for justice.

“Whether the ICC can effectively deliver on its mandate will depend on governments’ willingness to support justice no matter where abuses are committed and by whom,” she added.

She urged global leaders to take the warrants as an opportunity to address atrocities in the region and secure justice for all victims in Palestine and Israel.

The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed some 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.

The ICC said the warrants were issued for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.