Hamas also accused of attacking Israeli civilians and using Palestinians as human shields.
While the ICC in Hague is deciding into whether to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in Palestinian territories, Israel has prepared a secret list of 200 to 300 officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternative Prime Minister Benny Gantz, who might get arrested if ICC opens the investigation.
The ICC is expected to rule shortly on whether to approve the request by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate Israel and Hamas over suspicions of war crimes in the territories beginning in 2014, the year of Operation Protective Edge. Israel is accused of illegally establishing West Bank settlements and violating the laws of war during the 2014 Gaza War, including claims of targeting Red Cross installations.
Armed Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, are accused of deliberately attacking Israeli civilians and using Palestinians as human shields. According to Bensouda, who said have found a basis for investigation, the criteria for a full investigation had all been met, but jurisdiction had not been established. Bensouda stated, “I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”
According to Bensouda’s report, the Israeli judicial system already makes provision for punishing those accused of war crimes—meaning that the ICC may not have jurisdiction over alleged Israeli violations; Bensouda wrote that she will have to keep reviewing the “scope and genuineness of relevant domestic proceedings” that remain ongoing. Bensouda also found “a reasonable basis to believe that members of Hamas and Palestinian armed groups” are guilty of war crimes, but these groups have no mechanism for punishing such violations.
In connection to the settlements, Bensouda wrote: “There is a reasonable basis to believe that … the Israeli authorities … transfer[ed] Israeli civilians into the West Bank since 13 June 2014.” She added: “Despite the clear and enduring calls that Israel cease activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory deemed contrary to international law, there is no indication that they will end. To the contrary, there are indications that they may not only continue, but that Israel may seek to annex these territories.”
She noted that last year, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to annex large parts of the West Bank if reelected.”
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However Israel refuses to recognize court’s jurisdiction in this matter and shows no intention to represent officially in any proceedings there. Israel argues that the ICC does not have such authority, in part because the Palestinian Authority is not a sovereign state and therefore cannot delegate its judicial authority, and also because the case involves a political dispute. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the investigation as “a black day for truth and justice” and “pure antisemitism”
Israel realizes that further investigation may open anytime soon and prepare themselves for possible trial. The List of officials include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; former defense ministers Moshe Ya’alon, Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett; former Israel Defense Forces chiefs of staff Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and current Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi; and the former and current heads of the Shin Bet security service, Yoram Cohen and Nadav Argaman, respectively.
A great secrecy around the list prevails as Israel fears that the court might take it as Israeli admission of these officials’ involvement in the alleged war crime.
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