UPDATE - UN rapporteur for keeping 'flame of accountability burning' over ICC warrants against Netanyahu

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM RAPPORTEUR ON RIGHT TO HOUSING

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN special rapporteur on Palestine on Thursday called for a collective work "to keep the flame of accountability burning" over the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

"As the int'l community braces for potential repercussions, we must work together to keep the flame of accountability burning bright," Francesca Albanese said on X.

Albanese added: "May this time of darkness see the call for Justice grow stronger."

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, called the ICC decision "historic."

"The historic arrest warrants issued by the ICC against Netanyahu, Gallant and a Hamas commander are a major step towards accountability for atrocities," Rajagopal said.

He added: "This has reputational and legacy costs, not just the possibility of actual arrest."

Earlier, the Hague court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I said it “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for 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.”

In so doing, it also unanimously rejected Israel's challenges to jurisdiction under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute.

On their alleged crimes, the court said it “found reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “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 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, and injured over 103,000 others.

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 court also issued an arrest warrant for senior Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, commonly known as Deif, “for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the territory of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine from at least October 7, 2023.”

It said it is not in a position to determine whether Deif has been killed or remains alive. Israel claims Deif was killed in a July air raid in southern Gaza, but Hamas has yet to confirm it publicly.

Applications for arrest warrants for two other senior leaders of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, were withdrawn in August and October, respectively, following the confirmation of their death, the ICC said.