A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the decision by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan to seek arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas is “not helpful”. “This action is not helpful in securing a pause in the fighting, the release of hostages or the entry of humanitarian aid,” the spokesperson said, according to the BBC. Khan has requested the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Al-Masri, and Hamas’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh. A separate UK government spokesperson said earlier that London rejects the ICC having “jurisdiction in this instance”. “The UK has not yet recognised Palestine as a state, and Israel is not a state party to the [ICC’s] Rome Statute,” the source added, as cited by the same broadcaster. Khan said he “has reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed in Gaza. The two Israeli politicians are suspected of causing starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and wilful killing. They are also suspected of intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, of extermination and murder, including in the context of causing death by starvation, of persecution and other inhumane acts. “The alleged crimes against humanity were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to [Israel’s] State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to the present day,” he stated. The evidence gathered shows that Israel “has intentionally and systematically deprived” the civilian population of Gaza of essential goods for human survival, through the “imposition of a comprehensive blockade” on the enclave. Such measures “have been accompanied by other attacks on civilians, including those queuing for food, the obstruction of humanitarian aid deliveries, and the targeting and killing of humanitarian workers,” according to the ICC. The court considered that the crimes attributed to the Israeli politicians aimed to eliminate Hamas, secure the return of hostages, and “collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza, which was perceived as a threat to Israel”. It said the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, coupled with other attacks and collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza, “have been severe, visible and widely acknowledged”. “They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including infants, other children and women,” the ICC stated. The court noted that “Israel, like all States, is entitled to take measures” to defend itself, but recalled that this right does not exempt it from the obligation to comply with international humanitarian law. “Whatever the military objectives may have been, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza … were criminal,” it charged. The leaders of Hamas and the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian extremist group that attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, are also suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC cited the crimes of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape and other acts of sexual violence, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and other inhumane acts, in the context of confinement. “The alleged crimes against humanity were part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups … Some of these crimes, in our assessment, continue to the present day,” it stated. The ICC said it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Sinwar, Al-Masri and Haniyeh “are criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians” in the 7 October attack, and for taking at least 245 hostages. During “personal visits to the hostages shortly after their capture, they acknowledged responsibility for these crimes,” it stated. The investigators considered that the crimes of which Sinwar, Al-Masri and Haniyeh are suspected “could not have been committed without their conduct”, and so they are charged as co-perpetrators and as leaders. “If we fail to demonstrate our willingness to apply the law fairly, if it is seen to be applied selectively, we create the conditions for its collapse,” the ICC said. The crimes that prompted the arrest warrants “were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas that took place in parallel”. Also Read: ICC seeks arrest of Netanyahu. Will the EU impose “sanctions on Israel?” (Portuguese version)