The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued on Thursday an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for the warrants in May, claiming they are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. The ICC said it has reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. The court argued that there was “no justification” for restricting humanitarian aid and that Netanyahu and Galalnt’s conduct “deprived a significant portion of the civilian population in Gaza of their fundamental rights.” The court also noted that they had “measures available to them” to prevent these crimes but that they failed to employ them. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for the leader of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, accusing him of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against Israel.
US rejects ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu
The Biden administration “fundamentally” rejected on Thursday the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. A White House spokesperson told Barak Ravid, a global affairs correspondent for Axios, that Washington is currently talking about the “next steps.” “We remain deeply concerned by the Prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision. The United States has been clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” the spokesperson remarked. Meanwhile, European officials stated that the ICC’s decision had nothing to do with politics and “has to be respected and implemented.”