The ICC seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu adds to his growing list of problems

With his government coalition under threat, this news is the last thing the Israeli PM needs, Kim Sengupta writes

Benjamin Netanyahu is already facing a collapse of his coalition government (AP)

Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself alongside Hamas in the unenviable position of facing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the attack on 7 October and the subsequent Gaza War.

Chief prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, on accusations of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza; Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, based in Qatar, are wanted for alleged crimes of extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

The ICC had issued arrest warrants in the past for Vladimir Putin, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Joseph Kony, the Ugandan warlord who led the Lord’s Resistance Army. It had not, however, ever done so for leaders of a Western democracy, which Israel claims it is.

These are not the only human rights accusations Israel is facing. There is the separate legal action for alleged genocide South Africa has launched in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court, in the Hague, has just heard the Israeli response which is asking for the South African case to be thrown out.

Israel’s foreign minister has announced that a special command centre will be set up to fight against the ICC’s decision, which it says, is intended to tie the hands of the state of Israel and deny it the right to self-defence. It called the move by the court an “unrestrained frontal assault” on the victims of the 7 October attacks and a “historical disgrace that will be remembered forever”.

Behind the combative rhetoric, however, there is trepidation in Israel over the unfolding cases with more details emerging about what is going on in Gaza including accounts from returning soldiers.

For Mr Netanyahu, this is another problem to add to others that are mounting. The future of his disparate coalition government is in grave doubt after Mr Gallant and opposition party leader Benny Gantz delivered scathing attacks on the prime minister over his failure to agree to a plan for Gaza once the conflict ends.

Mr Gantz, a former head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), has declared that his National Unity Party will withdraw from the government if a proposal for security and governance of Gaza is not put in place by 8 June.

ICC judges, meanwhile, will consider whether there is enough evidence for arrest warrants to be issued. No date has been set for that yet.

As the war rolls on into its eighth month, with Mr Sinwar and Mr Deif still not killed or captured in Gaza and Hamas yet to be defeated, Mr Netanyahu is being forced to wait on what the future holds.