Ismail Haniyeh has travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey in the course of the struggle (File)

The prosecutor for the Worldwide Prison Court docket on Monday utilized for arrest warrants towards three prime leaders of the Palestinian Islamist motion Hamas whose bloody October 7 assault triggered the continued struggle.

Karim Khan additionally mentioned he was making use of for arrest warrants towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Here’s what we all know concerning the three Palestinians that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan desires arrested.

Ismail Haniyeh, the politician:

Ismail Haniyeh, 60, was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, however was already a well known determine having develop into Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that yr’s parliamentary election.

However the fragile power-sharing association with the Fatah motion of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas quickly ruptured and Hamas took full management of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after violently ousting the president’s loyalists.

Thought-about a pragmatist, Haniyeh lives in exile and splits his time between Turkey and Qatar.

He has travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey in the course of the struggle, assembly each the Turkish and Iranian presidents.

Haniyeh is alleged to keep up good relations with the heads of the assorted Palestinian factions, together with rivals to Hamas.

In his youth, the Hamas chief, who is understood for having a relaxed manner, was a member of the scholar department of the Muslim Brotherhood on the Islamic College of Gaza.

He joined Hamas in 1987 when the group was based amid the outbreak of the primary Palestinian intifada, or rebellion, towards Israeli occupation, which lasted till 1993.

Throughout that point Haniyeh was imprisoned by Israel a number of instances after which expelled to south Lebanon for six months.

In footage broadcast by Hamas-linked media after the October 7 assault, Haniyeh was seen watching pictures on tv of the unfolding assault on Israel, earlier than becoming a member of different Hamas leaders in a prayer to “thank Allah for this victory”.

Whereas greater than seven months of struggle have left swathes of Gaza in rubble, Haniyeh repeatedly insisted that the group would hand over hostages provided that there was a everlasting finish to the preventing.

Mohammed Deif, the ‘chief of employees’

The elusive Mohammed Deif heads Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

He’s Israel’s public enemy primary and a person they’ve tried to assassinate at the very least six instances.

Deif, whose actual identify is Mohammed Diab al-Masri, was born in 1965 in Gaza’s Khan Yunis refugee camp.

He has additionally been on the US checklist of “worldwide terrorists” since 2015.

Thought-about by Hamas to be the group’s “chief of employees”, Deif introduced the beginning of the Hamas assault on Israel dubbed “Al-Aqsa Flood” in an audio message on October 7.

Within the recording, Deif is heard saying that “the positions and fortifications of the enemy have been focused by 5,000 rockets and shells in the course of the first 20 minutes” of the assault.

Only some, poor-quality pictures of Deif are identified to exist, the latest taken some 20 years in the past.

His hiding place is unknown and he’s reported to be a grasp of disguise adept at mixing into the Palestinian inhabitants.

He has been concerned with Hamas for the reason that Nineteen Eighties and is alleged to have taken half in lots of its operations, together with the kidnapping of troopers and suicide bombings.

He was appointed head of Hamas’s navy wing in 2002 after the loss of life of his predecessor, Salah Shehade, in an Israeli air raid.

Two years earlier, at first of the second intifada, Deif escaped or was free of a jail run by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.

Shortly after he was named Hamas’s navy head, Israel launched its fifth bid to assassinate him in Gaza, in an assault that left him severely wounded, with unconfirmed stories suggesting he had been left paraplegic.

In 2014, Israel launched an air strike on Gaza, killing Deif’s spouse and one of many couple’s youngsters.

His enemies have dubbed him the “cat with 9 lives” whereas many Palestinians think about him a dwelling legend.

Yahya Sinwar, the ‘strongman’ of Gaza

A former commander of the Hamas navy wing, Yahya Sinwar, 61, was elected in 2017 as head of the Hamas group in Gaza.

Now, Israeli officers say he’s a “useless man strolling”.

Sinwar stands accused of masterminding the group’s October 7 assault on southern Israeli communities.

He rose by way of the ranks of Hamas as a fierce advocate of armed wrestle towards Israel and is taken into account the group’s “defence minister”.

Sinwar, who is aware of Israel effectively and speaks Hebrew, spent 23 years in Israeli jails earlier than his launch in 2011 in a prisoner trade involving French-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Like Deif, he is also on the US checklist of wished “worldwide terrorists”.

Israeli officers have mentioned that the continued offensive on Gaza is in pursuit of senior Hamas leaders together with Sinwar.

Identified for his secrecy, Sinwar is a safety operator “par excellence”, in accordance with Abu Abdallah, a Hamas member who spent years alongside him in Israeli jails.

Like Deif, he was born within the Khan Yunis refugee camp, and it was Sinwar who arrange the group’s inside safety equipment.

For the reason that struggle broke out Sinwar’s whereabouts have been unknown, however the Israeli military launched a video in February it mentioned confirmed the him being led by way of a tunnel along with a girl and three youngsters.

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)