Hamas Slams Prosecutor’s Bias, Demands ICC to Issue Arrest Warrants Against All Israeli War Criminal

This came after Khan had asked the court to issue arrest warrants against two Israeli leaders only, namely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, while at the same time requesting the arrest of three resistance officials, Yahya Al-Sinwar, the commander of the Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip, Muhammad Diab Ibrahim Al-Masry (Muhammad Al-Dhaif), the commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Movement’s political bureau, The Palestinian Information Center reported.

In a statement on Monday, Hamas called on the court to cancel the arrest warrants issued against the three Palestinian resistance leaders, arguing that those warrants violated international conventions and UN resolutions.

The Movement pointed out that the request for issuing arrest warrants against the two Israeli officials came seven months late, during which the Israeli occupation army committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians in accordance with the 25, 27 and 28th articles of the Rome Statute.

Hamas strongly condemned the attempts of the ICC’s Prosecutor to equalize the victim and the criminal by issuing arrest warrants against Palestinian resistance officials in violation of the international conventions that recognize the Palestinian people’s right to resisting the occupation in all forms, including armed resistance, according to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

The charges against Netanyahu and Galant include “causing genocide and using famine as a weapon in the war, blocking humanitarian aid supplies, and intentionally targeting civilians”.

However, Khan ignored the charges of torture, killing, enforced disappearance, and committing sexual‌ abuses against prisoners, despite international organizations’ reports confirming unprecedented levels of violations against Palestinian detainees.

Hamas also blamed Khan for charging the resistance officials with more charges compared to those brought against Netanyahu, although the latter is responsible for killing and wounding more than 114,000 Palestinians and displacing two million others.