Borrell reminds ICC member states that they must implement rulings
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has reminded the states which are parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that they must implement the court’s rulings.
“The mandate of the ICC, as an independent international institution, is to prosecute the most serious crimes under international law,” Borrell wrote on X. “All States that have ratified the ICC statutes are bound to execute the court’s decisions.”
He made his comment after the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that he is seeking to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammad Deif on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The prosecutor claimed that Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh — the head of Hamas in Gaza; the head of the armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades; and the head of the movement’s Political Bureau respectively — bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the territories of Israel and Gaza as of 7 October last year. Gaza, of course, is an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory under international law.
Palestinians in Gaza, and the Islamic Resistance movement itself, were incredulous that the court could regard the occupation state and the people under its occupation — who have the legitimate right to resist that occupation by all means, “including armed struggle” — with any degree of equivalence in such matters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the move against him and Gallant as “scandalous”, and insisted audaciously that, “They will not stop us,” such is his determination to continue his war against the Palestinians in Gaza.