Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as “antisemitic” a choice by the Worldwide Prison Court docket to problem arrest warrants for struggle crimes in opposition to him and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
He stated the ICC was “falsely” accusing them “of intentionally focusing on civilians, this after we do every little thing in our energy to keep away from civilian casualties”.
The ICC additionally issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. Israel says he was killed in Gaza in July.
ICC judges stated there have been “affordable grounds” to consider the three males bore “legal duty” for crimes through the struggle between Israel and Hamas.
US President Joe Biden known as the ICC transfer in opposition to Israeli officers “outrageous”.
“Regardless of the ICC would possibly suggest, there isn’t a equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas,” Biden stated in a assertion. “We are going to all the time stand with Israel in opposition to threats to its safety.”
Each Israel and Hamas reject the allegations made by the ICC.
In an announcement on Thursday, Netanyahu stated: “The antisemitic resolution of the worldwide courtroom in The Hague is a contemporary Dreyfus trial, and it’ll finish the identical means.”
He was referring to a high-profile case of antisemitism in France simply over a century in the past.
“The courtroom in The Hague accuses us of a deliberate coverage of hunger,” the Israeli PM stated.
“This when now we have equipped Gaza with 700,000 tons of meals to feed the folks of Gaza. We problem hundreds of thousands of textual content messages, telephone calls, leaflets to the residents of Gaza to get them out of hurt’s means – whereas the Hamas terrorists do every little thing of their energy to maintain them in hurt’s means, together with taking pictures them, utilizing them as human shields.”
Netanyahu stated Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s resolution.
Simply this week, the UN warned that Palestinians have been “dealing with diminishing circumstances for survival” in components of northern Gaza underneath siege by Israeli forces as a result of nearly no support had been delivered in 40 days.
Gallant stated the ICC positioned “the state of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the identical row and thus legitimises the homicide of infants, the rape of ladies and the kidnapping of the aged from their beds”.
Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister, instructed the BBC that whereas he was vital of Netanyahu’s dealing with of the battle with Hamas, he didn’t agree with the ICC’s resolution.
“Israel has not dedicated genocide or struggle crimes that deserve these expenses in opposition to the prime minister and the minister of defence,” Olmert instructed Radio 4’s World Tonight programme.
Hamas made no point out of the Deif warrant however stated the transfer in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant constituted an “vital historic precedent, and a correction to a protracted path of historic injustice in opposition to our folks”.
Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope Israeli leaders would now be dropped at justice.
Israel denies the allegation that its forces are committing genocide in Gaza, which is the topic of a separate case earlier than the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.
The influence of the warrants introduced by the ICC will rely upon whether or not the courtroom’s 124 member states – which don’t embody Israel or its ally, the US – determine to implement them or not.
A number of European international locations have stated they respect ICC selections. Downing Road stated the British authorities revered the independence of the ICC.
The prosecutor’s case in opposition to the three males stems from 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 folks and taking 251 others again to Gaza as hostages.
Israel responded by launching a army marketing campaign to eradicate Hamas, throughout which a minimum of 44,000 folks have been killed in Gaza, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
For Deif, an ICC pre-trial chamber discovered affordable grounds to consider he was “liable for the crimes in opposition to humanity of homicide; extermination; torture; and rape and different type of sexual violence; in addition to the struggle crimes of homicide, merciless therapy, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon private dignity; and rape and different type of sexual violence”.
It additionally stated there have been affordable grounds to consider the crimes in opposition to humanity have been “a part of a widespread and systematic assault directed by Hamas and different armed teams in opposition to the civilian inhabitants of Israel”.
For Netanyahu and Gallant, who was changed as defence minister earlier this month, the chamber discovered affordable grounds to consider that they “every bear legal duty for the next crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts collectively with others: the struggle crime of hunger as a technique of warfare; and the crimes in opposition to humanity of homicide, persecution, and different inhumane acts”.
It additionally discovered affordable grounds to consider that “every bear legal duty as civilian superiors for the struggle crime of deliberately directing an assault in opposition to the civilian inhabitants”.