CNN reports that the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders including Yahya Sinwar. Hamas leaders' ordered the terror attacks on October 7 which killed more than 1,000 Israelis, and Netanyahu ordered a brutal invasion of Gaza in which Israel's defense forces have killed about 35,000 civilians.
Khan said the charges against Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri include "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention." "The world was shocked on the 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel," Khan told Amanpour, adding that "people have suffered enormously." The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include "causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict," Khan told Amanpour. When reports surfaced last month that the ICC chief prosecutor was considering this course of action, Netanyahu said that any ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials "would be an outrage of historic proportions," and that Israel "has an independent legal system that rigorously investigates all violations of the law." Asked by Amanpour about the comments made by Netanyahu, Khan said: "Nobody is above the law."
The illustrious company of indictees who will never actually be tried includes Muammar Gadaffi, Omar al-Bashir and Vladimir Putin. Israel and the United States both withdrew as signitories to the ICC's jurisdiction long ago, knowing it would come for them sooner or later.
A more pressing threat to Netanyahu is the imminent collapse of his government and his slim prospects in any subsequent election.
