Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London.

I'm James Menendez.

And we're going to begin with that news just in the past hour or so

that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants

for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

his former defence minister Yoav Galant,

and the Hamas military chief Mohammed Daph over the war in Gaza.

Prosecutors asked the ICC to issue the warrants back in May of this year,

but Israel challenged its jurisdiction. The court has now rejected that appeal.

Well, let's speak to the BBC's Frank Gardner, who joins us on the line

from Jerusalem. Frank, just tell us, what are the charges exactly against the history?

Right. Well, the charges are for crimes against humanity and war crimes primarily.

Drilling down into it, it's for accusations of starvation in Gaza Strip, where Israel has

been fighting a pretty intense conflict ever since the October, the 7th raid by Hamas-led

militants last year.

And when it comes to Mohamed Def, his real name is Ibrahim al-Masri, he is accused of murder,

sexual violence, and other activities. But he's almost certainly dead. The Israelis presume that

he was killed in August. So that one is a little unclear. And initially,

Yachya Sinwa, the military leader at the time and then later leader of Hamas was being sought,

as was Ismail Hanir, but they are both dead. So this has provoked a furious reaction here in Israel from the president

downwards, the prime minister's office. They've called it absurd and unwarranted, a dark day

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