Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has faulted the International Criminal Court for seeking arrest warrants against him alongside Hamas’s leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict, describing it as “an absurd and false order.”
This came after the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was pursuing arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Mr Khan is also seeking the arrest of three leading Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh over Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In October, Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and holding 252 as hostages.
Territory’s Hamas-run health ministry noted that the attack triggered the current war, in which at least 35,500 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza.
However, U.S. president, Joe Biden, denounced as ‘outrageous’ the application by the court for warrants seeking the arrest of Mr Netanyahu with the senior members of Hamas for the Gaza incident.
Also, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed Mr Biden’s condemnation, saying Washington “fundamentally rejects” the move, describing it as shameful.
Mr Blinken said, “The ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter.’’
He also stated that seeking arrest warrants would jeopardise ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.
Mr Netanyahu said he rejected with disgust that “democratic Israel” had been compared with what he called “mass murderers.”
“With what audacity the ICC would dare to compare Hamas and Israel,” he said in a public statement
The longest-serving Israeli prime minister accused the prosecutor of “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz called the move by Mr Khan an “unrestrained frontal assault” on the victims of the October 7 attacks and a “historical disgrace that will be remembered forever.”
Some Israel’s Western allies however avoided directly criticising the ICC in their statements.
