Netanyahu said he rejected with disgust that “democratic Israel” has been compared with what he called “mass murderers”
The Prime Minister of Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu, has condemned the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) Prosecutor – Karim Khan, for seeking arrest warrants for him alongside Hamas’s leader – Yahya Sinwar, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, over the ongoing Gaza war.
Netanyahu said he rejected with disgust that “democratic Israel” has been compared with what he called “mass murderers”. Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and his Defence Minister – Yoav Gallant, bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
He said Netanyahu and Gallant were suspected of crimes, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, murder, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population and extermination.
Taking it to X, Netanyahu tweeted,
The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions.
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 20, 2024
It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court. pic.twitter.com/NJKYv06fyE
The President of the United States (U.S.), Joe Biden, a close ally of Netanyahu, has also denounced the orders and said there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and the U.S. are not members of the ICC, which was established in 2002.
Defending his ally, Biden said, “Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.”
The U.S. Secretary of State – Antony Blinken suggested that the request for arrest warrants would jeopardise ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.
Trouble started when Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,400 people with at least 150 hostages taken into Gaza. Dozens of hostages have been released by Palestinian groups in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails during a previous weeklong truce in November’23. As of now, at least 35,562 people have been killed and 79,652 wounded in the Israeli assault on Gaza.
As per the United Nations (U.N.), more than 900,000 people, approximately 40% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced in the past 2 weeks as Israeli bombardment continues across much of the enclave. Of these, 812,000 are from Rafah and over 100,000 from Northern Gaza.
Karim Khan also applied for arrest warrants for Palestinian militant – Mohammed Deif. Separately, Karim Khan accused Hamas of committing war crimes, including extermination, murder, hostage-taking and torture. Hamas has also denounced Karim Khan’s arguments and accused him of falsely comparing Hamas with an “executioner”.
The ICC defended its stance, saying that despite “significant efforts”, it has not received “any information that has demonstrated genuine action at the domestic level [in Israel] to address the crimes alleged or the individuals under investigation”.
A panel of judges at the ICC will now consider whether to issue the warrants and, if they do, countries signed up to the ICC statute are obliged to arrest the men if they have such an opportunity.
