Arrest warrants have been issued against the leaders of Hamas and Israel for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war in Gaza, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday.
In a statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas's Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh "bear criminal responsibility" for murder, extermination and taking hostages - among numerous other crimes - since the Gaza conflict erupted in the wake of Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October.
There are also reasonable grounds to believe that Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defence, are responsibile for other crimes and crimes against humanity "committed on the territory of the State of Palestine".
These include "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime…intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population (and) extermination and/or murder".
Although the ICC is not a UN organization, it has an agreement of cooperation with the United Nations. And when a situation is not within the Court's jurisdiction, the UN Security Council can refer the situation to the ICC, granting it jurisdiction.
Rafah exodus continues
Meanwhile, at least 810,000 people have fled Rafah in just two weeks, UN humanitarians said on Monday, amid reports of ongoing Israeli military operations in the southern city and in the north of the enclave.
"Every time families are displaced their lives are at serious risk. People are forced to leave everything behind looking for safety. But there's no safe zone," the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X.
Accompanying the alert, images showed families with their belongings piled high on the back of cars and makeshift trailers; another photograph taken overlooking the coastline showed a mass of shelters for the displaced, all made out of simple sheeting and stretching all the way to the horizon.
Death toll rises
According to the Gazan health authorities, at least 35,300 Gazans have been killed and more than 79,260 injured amid Israeli shelling since Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October left some 1,250 dead and more than 250 taken hostage from southern Israel.
Latest data from UNRWA's online logistics platform indicated that the delivery humanitarian aid has stopped almost entirely via the main entry points to Gaza via Rafah and Kerem Shalom in the south.
Amid an escalation of military activity in eastern Rafah, no UN relief supplies reached the enclave on Sunday 19 May and only 27 aid trucks entered via Kerem Shalom on Saturday 18 May, according to the UN agency portal, which also showed that only 33 additional aid trucks have used Kerem Shalom since 6 May and none have entered via Rafah.
Trying to stop famine
In the northwest of the enclave, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported that it has been using Erez west - also known as Zikim - to transport supplies and "try to get enough food to stop famine in its tracks".
But Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director for Palestine, insisted that humanitarians needed additional entry points for aid. "Every new entry point is a new artery, pumping lifeblood into Gaza, so we will work hard to continue to find new entry points and get more assistance in, at volume, consistently," he said in the aid agency's latest update.
