Global Rights Compliance (GRC) welcomes the ground-breaking decision by Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue warrants of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare as well as other crimes against humanity and war crimes committed at least between 8 October 2023 and 20 May 2024.
Whilst the full text of the arrest warrants has been kept ‘secret’ to safeguard the investigation and to protect witnesses, the Chamber specified that they found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant each bear criminal responsibility under different modes of liability for the following crimes:
- the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare;
- the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and
- the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
With specific regards to the war crime of starvation, Pre-Trial Chamber I noted that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”. This deprivation occurred through the impediment of humanitarian aid, the combined failure to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need relief, and cutting off electricity and fuel supply. These critical deprivations resulted in the inability of both humanitarian organisations to deliver food and other vital supplies and of hospitals to operate and provide adequate medical care, as well as severely impacting civilians access to potable water. The Chamber was also unable to identify a clear military need or other grounds under IHL to justify the prolonged access restrictions. Decisions to allow or increase aid were oftentimes the result of international pressure and in any case insufficient to meet the needs of the population in Gaza.
Pre-Trial Chamber I additionally issued a warrant of arrest for the highest commander of the military wing of Hamas at the time of the alleged conduct, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (also known as ‘Deif’), for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Israel and Palestine from at least 7 October 2023. The Chamber further rejected Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction brought under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute.
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Thursday’s arrest warrants mark a historic milestone: if arrested, Netanyahu and Gallant would be the first individuals to stand trial for the war crime of starvation in international criminal justice history. These warrants of arrest are a long-overdue recognition of its specific criminality and gravity.
“This is a watershed moment in addressing this egregious crime, which has long been viewed solely as a collateral or incidental effect of armed conflict, rather than a deliberate and calculated strategy’’ said Catriona Murdoch, GRC’s Vice-President and Director of the Starvation and Humanitarian Crisis Division.
The arrest warrants issued against individuals in the upper echelons of Israel’s Government recognise both the crime of starvation and the victims of this crime, signaling a potential change in the way the crime of starvation is viewed by both courts and warring parties. These warrants serve as a stark warning to belligerents that they will be held accountable for such atrocities.
Anna Gallina, GRC’s Gaza Project Lead mentioned that “For decades, Israel has continued to deprive Palestinian civilians of food, water, humanitarian aid, and other objects indispensable to their survival. Senior Israeli officials have openly admitted that starvation and deprivation are not collateral effects, but deliberate policies. The ICC’s intervention in this context sends an unambiguous message that the international community will no longer turn a blind eye to such crimes.”
Since October 2023, GRC’s Starvation and Humanitarian Crisis Division has been carefully monitoring the unfolding situation in Gaza and has begun to preliminarily investigate humanitarian access violations as well as attacks on civilians waiting for aid. “Global Rights Compliance calls on all ICC member states to support the enforcement of these arrest warrants. We stand ready to support the ICC Prosecutor’s ongoing investigation by sharing the information we have been forensically preserving and analysing to date.”
“There is an acute need to recognise the specific criminality of starvation and to ensure that starvation crimes are correctly labeled as such. This is vital not only for justice but for the dignity and acknowledgment of victims and survivors who have suffered from this devastating form of warfare” said GRC’s Legal Adviser Rebecca Bakos Blumenthal.
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Since 2017, GRC has been at the forefront of the development of the war crime of starvation and associated violations, working with a range of state and non-state partners. GRC possesses unrivalled expertise and granular knowledge of the crime of starvation and related violations, derived from a dedicated portfolio of analysis, accountability, and investigative work. This includes multiple starvation investigations, including through the use of OSINT, in several different conflict-specific contexts, including Yemen, Syria, Tigray, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Ukraine, and more recently Palestine and Sudan.
For additional information please contact:
GRC’s Communications Manager – Inna.Kovalova@grcompliance.org
GRC’s Gaza Project Lead – Anna.Gallina@grcompliance.org