The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stands accused of crimes against humanity.

The Likud leader and former minister of defence Yoav Gallant have both been accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the ongoing Gaza conflict.

The court requested arrest warrants for the pair in May of this year, as well as three Hamas leaders: Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

Mr Haniyeh and Mr Sinwar have both since died. Mr Deif is also believed to be dead, but without confirmation a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

A statement read: "The chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.

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"The arrest warrants are classified as ‘secret’, in order to protect witnesses and to safeguard the conduct of the investigations. However, the chamber decided to release the information below since conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing. Moreover, the chamber considers it to be in the interest of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrants’ existence.

"With regard to the crimes, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, minister of defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

"The chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population."

(Image: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool/AP)

The ICC found reasonable grounds to believe that both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies and restricted humanitarian aid, and therefore bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.

It found that those actions had caused deaths of civilians in Gaza and while it "could not determine that all elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were met", the chamber "did find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of murder was committed".

The ICC also found "reasonable grounds" to believe the people of Gaza were targeted based on political and/or national grounds and therefore that the crime against humanity of persecution was committed.

Finally, the chamber assessed that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians in Gaza.

The ICC found reasonable grounds Mr Deif holds criminal responsibility for murder; extermination; torture; and rape and other form of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, taking hostages; and outrages upon personal dignity.

The chamber stated that the Hamas leader bore criminal responsibility having either done the aforementioned himself, ordered others to do them, or failed to "exercise proper control over forces under his effective command and control".

The warrants are unlikely to have any real world effect, however.

Israel does not recognise the court and while the state of Palestine does, Mr Deif is believed to be dead.

Should either Mr Gallant or Mr Netanyahu set foot on UK soil, they would theoretically have to be arrested under the Rome Statute.

However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously refused to say whether he would enforce such an action, stating that he believes in "the rule of law" but "we’ll never accept equivalence between Hamas and Israel".