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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant will formally face prosecution at the International Criminal Court after arrest warrants were issued against them on Thursday on charges of overseeing attacks on the civilian population of Gaza.
Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, named as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al Masri in the warrants, is also sought by the court, even as uncertainty exists over his fate in the conflict.
Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and anti-Semitic.
US President Joe Biden called the arrest warrants "outrageous" and said there was "no equivalence — none" between Israel and Hamas.
The US “fundamentally rejects” the decision, the White House said on Thursday. “We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor's rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision. The United States has been clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” a National Security Council representative said.
The warrant for Mr Deif cites the Hamas attacks of October 7 and the taking of scores of hostages, many of whom have been missing for more than a year.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said it rejected “with disgust the absurd and false actions levelled against it by the ICC”. It condemned the ICC’s decision as “anti-Semitic” and “comparable to the modern-day Dreyfus trial”, referring to Alfred Dreyfus, a 19th century Jewish French army officer who was wrongfully convicted of treason and whose case sparked a national crisis.
Hamas welcomed the warrants as an “important step towards justice”. Its senior political official Basem Naim said the court's decision “remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world to implement it”.
The ICC's move now theoretically limits the movement of Mr Netanyahu because any of the court's 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory. Israel has faced growing international criticism over its conduct of the Gaza war, including from its allies.
Dozens were killed or unaccounted for in Gaza on Thursday after Israeli strikes. One strike near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the territory left “dozens of people” dead or missing, the facility's director Hossam Abu Safiya said. Another strike was reported in a neighbourhood of Gaza city, with civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal saying 22 were dead.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the war has reached 44,056 people, most of them civilians.
Mr Khan sought the warrants in May and the three-judge panel has now approved prosecution. The chief prosecutor has since May faced accusations of sexual harassment in the workplace and suggested these are attempts to interfere with the prosecution.
Judges approving the arrest warrant request said they found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes … as co-perpetrators”, listing them as “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
They also accused the pair of “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”. The judges rejected Israel's challenge to the request, which argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in Palestine, or over Israeli nationals.
“The acceptance by Israel of the court’s jurisdiction is not required, as the court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of territorial jurisdiction of Palestine,” the judges said. The original application included Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh but the pair were subsequently killed.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the judges' decision as a “dark day for humanity”. “Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice – from the Allied victory over the Nazis till today,” he said on social media.
“It ignores the plight of the 101 Israeli hostages held in brutal captivity by Hamas in Gaza. It ignores Hamas's cynical use of its own people as human shields. It ignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has the duty and right to defend its people.”
Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot said the decision marked a “good day for those who believed in internationalism”. “The ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant [are] not only a step towards accountability and justice in Palestine but also a step to restore the credibility of the rules-based international order and its judicial system,” he wrote on social media.
Others welcomed the decision. Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, urged the international community to work together.
“As the international community braces for potential repercussions, we must work together to keep the flame of accountability burning bright. May this time of darkness see the call for justice grow stronger,” she wrote on social media.
The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the warrants were “binding” and should be implemented. “It is not a political decision. It is a decision of a court, of a court of justice, of an international court of justice. And the decision of the court has to be respected and implemented,” Mr Borrell said during a visit to the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Pressure is now growing on the UK and other member states of the ICC to uphold the court's arrest warrants decision. “It is now incumbent upon all parties who say they support the institutions of international law, human rights and justice to act on the ICC's warrants,” Mr Zomlot said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would abide by international law if Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant were to travel to the country.
“We stand up for international law and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts. It's just who we are as Canadians,” Mr Trudeau said.
“The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said British independent MP Zarah Sultana. “The UK government must comply with the ICC, end all arms sales, impose economic sanctions and suspend its trade deal with Israel. Nothing less will do.”
Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard said: “Prime Minister Netanyahu is now officially a wanted man. ICC member states and the whole international community must stop at nothing until these individuals are brought to trial before the ICC's independent and impartial judges.”
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Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
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