WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today released the following statement on the recent action by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif for war crimes committed during and after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks:
The Geneva Conventions were agreed to after the horrors of World War II to establish standards meant to protect civilian populations and prevent warring nations from engaging in barbaric actions. The International Court of Justice and, later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) were created to enforce those standards.
Today, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and directing attacks against the civilian population. The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military chief, for crimes against humanity, including murder, hostage taking, and sexual violence.
The ICC charges are well-founded.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas began this war by launching a terrorist attack against Israel which killed 1,200 innocent people, took 250 hostages, and engaged in sexual assaults. That is a war crime.
Israel had a right to defend itself against Hamas, but it did not have the right to wage an all-out war against the Palestinian people. In Gaza, over 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 have been injured, two-thirds of whom are women, children, and the elderly. Netanyahu, Gallant, and Deif have all launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and all three have caused unimaginable suffering within the civilian population.
If the world does not uphold international law, we will descend into further barbarism.
I agree with the decisions of the ICC.
