ICC seeks arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli leaders

We are following this breaking news. The International Criminal Courtmoments ago announced it is seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamasfor the October seven terrorist attack on Israeland also seeking arrest warrants for the political and militaryleadership of the state of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas's top political and military leadersalso being sought for crimes against humanity,all named just now. CNN's chief international anchor,Christiane Amanpour.

Has this exclusive interviewwith a special prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan,who announced it to her just moments ago. And she's joining us right nowfrom The Hague. Christiane, tell me more. Tell us more about what you've learned. Well, Kate, we broke this earlier on CNNsome 20 minutes ago. It is an incredibly importantturning point in this war since Hamas invaded parts of Israel, slaughteredso many people, took so many hostages.

And in the aftermath,since Israel went to war against Hamas and has caused so many civilian casualties and what international officialssay, starvation and famine also imposed. So these form the basis of the ICC chargesand they are now seeking warrants, seeking arrest warrants that will have to be approvedby a panel of independent judges here. I am at the ICC based on these thingsthat I told you, and here are the crimes. There are some eight crimes charges alleged on both sides, starting with Hamasbecause of the timeline.

Obviously, October 7th was what Hamas did. Here's what the what he told me. We're here at the ICC. You are today announcing that you are applying for arrest warrantsfor top military and political leadershipin the Israel Gaza war. Since the October 7th events. First and foremost, explain to me exactly what you're asking forand who you are charging today.

Christiane, we've applied for warrantsto the pretrial chamber of the International Criminal Courtin relation to three individuals that are Hamas members,Sinwar, who's in charge on the ground? That's Yahya Sinwar. Absolutely. Deif, who's in charge of the AlqasemBrigade, and Haniya, who's one of their politicalbureau based in Doha. What are the charges? The charges are extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rapeand sexual assault in detention.

So these are the key crimes that are alleged to have been committedby these two individuals. The world was shocked onthe 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes,from the different kibbutzim in Israeland people have suffered enormously. And we have a variety of evidenceto support the applications that we've submitted to the judges. You have also issued warrantsagainst the top political.

And military leadershipof the government of the state of Israel. We've applied for warrants. Of course, the judges must determinewhether or not to issue them. But we've applied today. We will apply for warrantsfor Prime Minister Netanyahu and also Minister of Defense Galant for the crimes of causing extermination,.

Causing starvation as a method of war, including the denialof humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targetingcivilians in conflict. So what you're hearingis the lay out of the crimes. So it is crimes against humanityand war crimes. And in addition, the prosecutor has saidjust so that everybody understands that he has issued this request for arrestwarrants based on the reasonable belief on groundsthat these are criminal offenses that can meet a conviction standard.

It's not just reasonable groundsthat they could go to trial. This is higher the standard of convictionbased on the evidence that he and his teams have collectedso far and that are in the public domain. Christiane? Sara here, a couple of things. One, I wanted to ask youjust about the unprecedented nature that this is, I think, the first timethat a democratic government has been brought underthese potential warrants and how they've goneabout gathering evidence.

When getting into Gaza,I think is very, very difficult. So on the first issue,I put that to Prosecutor Karim Hon obviously, and I said this is the first timethat this has happened in a Democratic situationwhen we're talking about the Israeli side. And he said that is true. And if Israel were to take this upor had taken it up, the judicial system when we first warned about this monthsago, then they would have jurisdiction. If they choose to do so,now they will have jurisdiction.

So that is that's clear. He said that they have not chosento do such a thing, even though, as he said to me and he said it publicly,that when I warned at all these international conferences,when I warned in my face to face meetings with Israeli officials that this isthe warning, aid is not getting through. Starvation is setting in. People are dying that don't complain. If then my office does something about itif you don't. So that's on that issue.

And then on the other issue of evidence. Part of it is in the public domain. Part of it is what's been reported over. And again, part of it is what's been saidand I'm talking about Israel. Now, obviously,we're going to get to the Hamas thing. It's importantto know that in the prosecutor's timeline, in his indictment sheetand you'll see on the press release, they listed the crimes that that theyare charging Hamas with on October 7th. And we'll get to that in a second.

But since you're asking me about the unprecedentednature of a democracy being so charged, this they go back to Yoav Gallant,because don't forget Yoav Gallant, defense minister of Israel,has also been charged and they, among others, seek or see his intent. His statement on October the ninth. We are imposing a complete siege. There will be no electricity,no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed.

We are fighting human animalsand we will act accordingly. Netanyahu October 13th,We will exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel'sother enemies for decades to come. Now, that's part of it. The other part is all the physicaland and and other testimony by U.S. officials, let's say USAID, byinternational aid organizations, the U.N. and all the others, by the very factthat the United States has had to build some pier on the side of Gaza andand some countries have had to drop aid in that the aid the demand for aid going inis not happening.

And this is the basis of the majorityof the case against Israel at the moment that this is no matter, as he explained,Israel, of course, has the right under any statute to defend itself from attack,but has to protect civilians. And this is somethingthe United States has been calling for from the very beginning, as well as many,many others of Israel's allies. So they believe thatthat has not been adhered to, that aid has not gone in that faminein enough boat. That famine is there in some partsand that there have been deaths by starvation and malnutritionrelated diseases now.

And they've had many conversations,the prosecutor tells me, with officials inside Israel on this. Now, on the other side, regarding Hamas, the prosecutorhas been to the areas inside Israel which were attacked by Hamas,the kibbutzim, the the site of the rave party,the Nova Party. He has been there. He's talked to people, talked aboutand to hostage families. And he also has seen the evidencethat was on all sorts of videos,.

All sorts of body camsthat has been provided certainly in the public domain,but also by the Israeli government regarding the crimescommitted by Hamas on October the seventh. So they have that amount of evidencethat has been sufficient, they say, for this round of arrestwarrants and charges. And they say that they will continue to investigateand this may not be the end of it. So let's just again,you know, some up on the Hamas side, Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas,mostly military,.

Mohammed al-Masri, who's better knownas Mohammed Dave, his deputy head of the military wing of Hamas,the alpha, some brigades and Ismail Haniya,the head of political arm of Hamas, who frankly is involved in negotiationscurrently in direct negotiations between Hamas and Israel regardingthe release of Israeli hostages and the and the capture of Israeli hostages. The sexual offensesand violations and rapes by Hamas also formpart of these crimes against humanity that are being soughton arrest warrants for for Hamas.

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