What ICC arrest warrants mean for Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas

An all-important exception for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant is the US. The White House believes the ICC does not have jurisdiction in the conflict, a position that might widen the split inside Joe Biden’s Democratic party over the war.

Progressives have already welcomed the ICC’s action. Staunch allies of Israel among the Democrats might support Republican moves to pass a law to sanction ICC officials or ban them from the US.

As rumours of impending indictments churned through Europe, America and the Middle East weeks ago, a group of Republican senators issued the kind of threat to Mr Khan and his staff that they might have heard in a Mafia movie.

“Target Israel and we will target you… you have been warned.”

Yoav Gallant would also be unable to travel freely. The words he used when announcing that Israel would besiege Gaza has been frequently quoted by critics of Israel’s conduct.

Two days after the Hamas attacks on 7 October, Mr Gallant said: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed… we are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”.

Mr Khan writes in his statement that “Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival”.

Famine, he says, is present in parts of Gaza and imminent in others.

Israel denies there is a famine, claiming that food shortages are caused not by their siege – but by Hamas thefts and UN incompetence.

If an arrest warrant is granted for Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political branch, he will have to think harder about his regular trips to meet senior Arab leaders. He is likely to spend much more time at his base in Qatar, which like Israel, did not sign the Rome Statute that set up the ICC.

The other two accused Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, are believed to be hiding somewhere inside Gaza. An arrest warrant does not add much to the pressures on them. Israel has been trying to kill them for the last seven months.

The warrant would also put Mr Netanyahu in a category of accused leaders that also includes Russian President Vladmir Putin, and late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.

Mr Putin faces an arrest warrant for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Before he was killed by his own people, Col Gaddafi’s arrest warrant was for murder and persecution of unarmed civilians.

It is not attractive company for Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a state that prides itself on its democracy.