Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly condemned the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor for applying for arrest warrants for him and Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict.
Netanyahu said he was disgusted that he or his country could be compared to Hamas leaders whom he referred to as “mass murderers”, and condemned the application to seek his arrest as “an absurd and false order”.
In a statement, he accused the prosecutor of “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world”.
The chief ICC prosecutor has accused Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Karim Khan of bearing criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The ICC is also seeking a warrant for Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war crimes.
The Israeli leader has received support from US President, Joe Biden who said on Monday that there was “no equivalence between Israel and Hamas”.
“It’s clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection,” Biden added.
The US says the request for arrest warrants would jeopardise ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire deal.
Khan also applied for arrest warrants for Mr Gallant and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with the group’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
He said Israel’s prime minister and defence minister were suspected of crimes including using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, murder, intentionally attacking a civilian population, and extermination.
A panel of judges at the ICC must 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.
Israel and the US, its key ally, are not members of the ICC, which was set up in 2002.
While Israel’s Western allies have been cautious in criticising the ICC, the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that it supported the court and what it called its “fight against impunity in all situations”.
Similarly, Germany’s foreign ministry said it “respects the independence and procedures” of the ICC. In his reaction, EU representative Josep Borrell noted the ICC’s mandate to prosecute serious international crimes, saying that countries that have ratified the Rome Statute must comply with ICC decisions.