Today, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes that have been committed in Gaza since October 2023.

The ICC’s strongly worded statement finds that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”. It found that these two government officials, who have orchestrated the year-long genocide, could “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.” It cites the restrictions that Israel has placed on the flow of humanitarian aid, which has now completed halted in the north of Gaza, and accused them of depriving Palestinians in Gaza of their fundamental rights to life and health, targeting the population on the basis of their political and national affiliations.

In July, the Labour Party came to power promising that they would pursue a foreign policy that was driven by international law. Since then, while they chose to drop the previous Tory government’s shameful object to these arrest warrants by the ICC, Keir Starmer and David Lammy have continued to provide Israel with support and deny the ongoing genocide. Now, with the world’s courts unanimously agreeing that Israel is committing war crimes, the UK government will again be tested on its response.

Reacting to the news, Ismail Patel, Chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, said, “The ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant is further confirmation that Israel is a rogue state that has broken all international norms, laws and ethics in its ongoing genocide in Palestine. The UK government claims to be following a foreign policy driven by international law but has failed to put any meaningful pressure on Israel. It must now immediately stop arms sales to Israel and comply with these arrest warrants if it wants to illustrate its commitment to an international order based on peace and justice. If it does not, it will not only be violating its campaign promises but be considered a pariah state, along with all those that continue to stand by Israel as it commits war crimes and genocide in Palestine.”