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Saleem Ayoub Quna
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Palestinian child Imad Mohammed was murdered in an Israeli airstrike in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Thursday. Imad was attacked several times during the Israeli genocide where he lost his parents, sisters, and several other family members.
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Last Wednesday evening, the occupation aircraft bombed the house of the Al-Arouqi family in the Abu Iskandar area in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City, killing 25 of its residents, including children. The young man, Muhammad Yousef Al-Arouqi, was the only survivor of the massacre.
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The world and Israeli press see the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant as a major setback for Israel, a dramatic political and legal escalation with much repercussion and leading to its isolation as an occupying state with the imposition of restrictions on the travel of its officials to dozens of countries and weakening its international position.
In a historic precedent, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants, Thursday, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The arrest warrants focused on the committal of the war crime of genocide, including starving an entire people and preventing them from accessing their right to the necessities of life.
Political storm
The ICC decision sparked an international political storm. While many EU countries confirmed their commitment to implementing the court’s order, attention turned to Israel and how it would deal with the decision, which many consider a slap in the face whose consequences unimaginable, even if the US administration rejects it on the grounds that the ICC does not have jurisdiction in this matter.
Netanyahu, who is in deep crisis and famous for his rhetorics, found no better way than to describe the decision but as a new “Dreyfus trial,” likening himself to the French Jewish officer who was tried in 1894 because he was Jewish. His description was a prelude to considering the ICC decision anti-Semitic, hostile to Jews and a dark day for the history of civilized peoples.
Months ago, Netanyahu described the request of the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to issue arrest warrants as “ridiculous and false… and a distortion of reality,” while stressing “Israel’s right to defend itself” against barbarism and obscurantism, and those who seek to eliminate it.
A Haaretz article sees the issuing of ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant as reflecting the lowest point of the Jewish state in its battle for legitimacy and international support.
According to the article, Israelis who felt supported by many world countries after Operation Aqsa Flood on 7 October, 2023, “wake up today, 13 months later, to find their country isolated, condemned and accused of committing war crimes.”
Dramatic escalation
The British Financial Times described the ICC decision as a dramatic escalation in legal proceedings against Israel over its war on Gaza, noting it is the first decision of its kind against Western-backed Israeli officials.
According to the newspaper, the decision will reinforce the feeling Israel is experiencing increasing international isolation due to its behavior in the war on Gaza.
Le Monde however, stated that it is the United States who would now face isolation after using its veto power against a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the French daily, negotiators expected the Biden administration to review its current position before the arrival of the strongly pro-Israel Donald Trump administration.
Potential implications
The New York Times highlighted three possible repercussions of the ICC arrest warrants, the first of which is world diplomatic isolation, especially among the ICC signatory countries and which may hinder diplomatic relations and military cooperation between Israel and many countries.
The New York-based newspaper believes the arrest warrants will put Israeli leaders back under the international legal microscope, making their travel outside Israel risky, in addition to weakening the Israeli position, adding the warrants increases international criticism of Israeli military operations, and weakens the support it receives from its allies, especially in Europe.
But the New York Times also quotes international law expert Philippe Sands as saying there are legal restrictions facing the International Criminal Court in implementing arrest warrants, “but the decision carries strong symbolism that reflects a change in the international position towards Israel,” noting the signatory countries are obligated to arrest “wanted persons if they enter their territory. This is a clear legal obligation.”
However, the newspaper’s adoption of precedents such as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to signatory countries without arresting him raises questions about the court’s ability to enforce its decisions in practice.
Embargo on arms supplies to Israel
An Israeli military analyst believes that the two international arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant open the door to imposing an arms embargo on the occupying state of Israel.
Amos Harel, an analyst in Haaretz, points out the ICC decision “could give a strong boost to the complaints and criminal investigations against IDF soldiers and commanders that are being conducted in many countries.”
Harel points out to the many implications of the decision, including the possibility of Netanyahu and Galant being arrested in more than 120 member states of the ICC if they reach them, adding the decision could create an opportunity for an arms embargo by additional Western countries, which have so far been content with “more moderate” measures against Israel.
“This will give a strong boost to the many complaints and criminal investigations against Israeli soldiers and leaders taking place in many countries. It also serves as a reminder that there is another axis for criminal investigation, which is the events taking place in the West Bank, with a focus on settlements,” he added.
The warrants will also put pressure on lower-ranking Israeli officials as they can be brought into war crimes cases in national courts of individual countries they travel to.
“It sort of gives a stamp of quality to Israel’s isolation. This is not a protest at Columbia University. This is not a bunch of hooligans fighting each other on the streets of Amsterdam. This is the ICC,” said Alon Pinkas, a former senior Israeli diplomat pointed out.
This article was translated, edited by Dr Marwan Asmar from the Palestine Information Center and reprinted on crossfirearabia.com.
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Israel’s new Defense Minister, Israel Katz, issued a statement announcing the end of administrative detention orders against colonial settlers in the occupied West Bank, describing it as a “severe measure” against them.
Such arrest warrants are rare, but Katz, known for his far-right views, is the first defense minister to refuse issuing administrative detention orders for illegal settlers.
This decision has received support from far-right Israeli leaders such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, despite further reinforcing the perception of unequal treatment between Israelis and Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
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The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line continue to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
Highlighting the deepening humanitarian catastrophe for civilians on Lebanon’s Independence Day, the UN refugee agency, UNCHR, warned of a prevailing sense of uncertainty and fear as the war grinds on.
“In recent weeks, Israel dramatically intensified its airstrikes and ground incursions, and this has deepened the humanitarian catastrophe that has affected civilians,” said Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon. “The past few weeks have been the deadliest and the most devastating for Lebanon and people in decades.”
To date, close to one million people have been displaced across Lebanon – one in five of the population – and nearly 600,000 people have crossed the border into Syria.
© UNHCR/Hameed Maarouf
People flee the hostilities in Lebanon as they cross the Jdeidet Yabous border into Syria on foot.
According to the authorities, as of 20 November, there have been nearly 3,600 confirmed deaths including more than 230 children and more than 15,000 injured.
Speaking from the war-torn country, Mr. Freijsen appealed for international assistance to “ramp up winter assistance; it’s started to rain and in some areas the first snow has fallen…we have a huge collective effort in front of us we need to pursue in terms of creating better conditions for all the displaced through specific winter assistance and improved shelter.”
The UNHCR official stressed the need to ensure equal access to shelter for all displaced people, particularly refugees who were already in an acutely precarious situation before this crisis. The agency’s response includes counselling, community support and creating safe spaces for those most at risk. To date, it has reached more than 100,000 people during the current emergency and supports a network of 44 health facilities across the country, including the provision of life-saving equipment, such as trauma kits.
According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), one in 10 hospitals has ceased operations or been forced to reduce services as attacks continue on healthcare and personnel.
“A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to the healthcare and this is unprecedented in any level,” said Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO Representative in the country.
Citing UN health agency data, he noted that nearly 330 healthcare workers have been killed in Lebanon since 8 October last year, and “47 per cent of these attacks on healthcare have proven fatal”.
Asked to explain this high fatality ratio, Dr Abubakar added that on the front line “more ambulances have been targeted – and whenever the ambulance is targeted actually then you will have a three, four or five paramedics that have been killed”.
In an update from the Lebanon-Syria border crossing at Jdaidet Yabous, UNHCR’s Representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, reported that an estimated 560,000 people have sought shelter inside Syria since 24 September – about 65 per cent are Syrians and the remainder are Lebanese. Crossing the border remains extremely dangerous for civilians and humanitarians alike, however.
“It is clear from our interaction with those Syrians and Lebanese that we speak to at the border that the bombings of the IDF of border crossings – including the one where I am here which has been bombed at least twice in the past few weeks – this has had a major effect in reducing the numbers. Syrians and Lebanese are very scared of using these escape routes,” said Mr. Vargas Llosa, speaking to journalists in Geneva via video link.
Around 50 Lebanese nationals are returning to Lebanon every day in response to the “disastrous” economic situation in Syria, along with a smaller number of Syrians, the UNHCR official continued.
“They’re going back because they cannot make ends meet here because they’re not getting enough support, and they think that they might also be better off in Lebanon. Again, these are very, very small numbers. But for us, even small numbers, are worrying signals.”
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