Israel strikes Gaza after ICC issues arrest warrants

Jerusalem: Israel’s military said on Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, pressing its north Gaza offensive a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants over the war.

With Israel also fighting Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, live AFPTV footage showed several strikes early Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Iran-backed group holds sway.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant may bear “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and other crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Hague-based court’s decision drew mixed reactions from world leaders, with some vowing to arrest the Israelis if they entered their country’s territory.

Other leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have condemned the court’s decision which Netanyahu dismissed as “absurd” and “driven by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel”.

Israel has similarly pushed back against accusations of genocide in its war against Hamas, with a case brought before the International Court of Justice in December and, more recently, a report issued by a UN special committee last week.

On the ground in Gaza, the military said an air strike on the territory’s north killed five Hamas militants including two company commanders “who participated in the October 7 massacre” last year.

Medics said dozens were killed or missing after an overnight Israeli raid on Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia, which are among the targets of a sweeping Israeli assault on north Gaza.

The civil defence agency was not immediately able to provide an exact toll.

Biden vows support

Biden, in a statement responding to the ICC’s arrest warrants, called them “outrageous”, vowing to “always stand with Israel against threats to its security”.

China, which like Israel and the United States is not a member of the ICC, urged the court to “uphold an objective and just position”.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that Beijing “supports any efforts... that are conducive to achieving fairness and justice”.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, accusing him of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the attack on Israel that sparked the war, as well as “sexual and gender-based violence” against hostages.

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

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas both welcomed the warrants - though without mentioning Deif.

Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region, praised the arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders.

“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime,” said Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami.

The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.

But on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would invite Netanyahu to visit and defy the “cynical” and “political” ICC warrant.

The Israeli prime minister, in a video statement, said that “no outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us... from continuing to defend our country in every way.”

‘Enough’

Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in the already devastated north of the Gaza Strip, Israel launched a sweeping assault on the area in early October.

In Gaza City, one man who said he took his cousins to hospital after a strike urged “the world... to put an end” to the war.

“We’ve had enough,” said Belal, who only gave his first name.

“I’ve lost my entire family - 10 family members gone, and I’m the only one left... All we want is an end to this injustice we’re living. We want nothing else.”

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza in more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

It was triggered by the deadliest attack in Israeli history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In Lebanon, AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising over south Beirut after the Israeli military called for the evacuation of three locations, warning on social media of imminent attacks.

The military later said in a statement its “fighter jets completed a new round of strikes” on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon’s south and east, where Israel says it has been targeting Hezbollah militants.

More than 11 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict escalated into all-out war in September, with Israel conducting an extensive bombing campaign and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least 52 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, including some 40 dead in Lebanon’s east, taking its overall death toll since October 2023 to 3,583 people.