Bombay Durpun - Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli officials

"The State of Palestine welcomed the decision" to issue the warrants against Netanyahu and ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant, the Palestinian Authority said in a statement published by official news agency Wafa.

The ICC said it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.

"The ICC's decision represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions," the Palestinian statement said, urging ICC member states to sever "contact and meetings" with Netanyahu and Gallant -- who was sacked by the Israeli prime minister earlier this month.

The statement from the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, did not make any mention of the warrant also issued Thursday for Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif over war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel said it killed Deif in Gaza in July, but Hamas has not confirmed his death.

The group, in its own statement about the ICC decision, similarly did not mention Deif.

Hamas said the warrants for the Israeli leaders were "an important step towards justice and can lead to redress for the victims in general".

"But it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world", the group's political bureau member Bassem Naim said.

- 'Massacres' -

Asked by AFP about the Deif warrant, a Hamas official who wished to remain anonymous said there was "no comparison between the criminal occupier and the victim".

Palestinians uprooted from their homes in Gaza suggested the ICC warrants will make no difference to their suffering.

Yussef Abu Huwaishel, inside a flimsy shelter with a dirt floor in central Gaza, said "it is important to see someone speaking out about these massacres and the oppressed people" but "there is still the United States" which supports Israel.

At the same encampment in Al-Zawayda, Hasan Hasan said he was certain that "the decision will not be implemented because no decision in favour of the Palestinian cause has ever been enforced."

The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

About 250 hostages were seized during the attack, with 97 still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 44,056 people in more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

G.Vaidya--BD