Netanyahu ICC war crimes arrest warrant ‘outrageous’ says Biden

US President Joe Biden has known as an Worldwide Legal Court docket struggle crimes arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister “outrageous”.

The ICC additionally issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu’s now sacked defence minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander, Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed in July.

Judges mentioned there have been “cheap grounds” to consider the three males bore “prison accountability” for crimes in the course of the struggle between Israel and Hamas.

Europe and the US have been break up of their response to the warrant, with a number of European international locations saying they respect ICC choices. The British authorities indicated that Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to the UK.

Biden mentioned in a assertion that “regardless of the ICC may indicate, there isn’t any equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We’ll 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 mentioned: “The antisemitic determination of the worldwide courtroom in The Hague is a contemporary Dreyfus trial, and it’ll finish the identical approach.”

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 mentioned.

“This when we now have equipped Gaza with 700,000 tons of meals to feed the individuals of Gaza. We difficulty thousands and thousands of textual content messages, cellphone calls, leaflets to the residents of Gaza to get them out of hurt’s approach – whereas the Hamas terrorists do every little thing of their energy to maintain them in hurt’s approach, together with capturing them, utilizing them as human shields.”

Netanyahu mentioned Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s determination.

Simply this week, the UN warned that Palestinians have been “going through diminishing circumstances for survival” in components of northern Gaza beneath siege by Israeli forces as a result of just about no support had been delivered in 40 days.

Gallant mentioned 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 girls 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 determination.

“Israel has not dedicated genocide or struggle crimes that deserve these prices 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 mentioned the transfer in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant constituted an “necessary historic precedent, and a correction to a protracted path of historic injustice in opposition to our individuals”.

Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope Israeli leaders would now be delivered to 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 impression of the warrants introduced by the ICC will depend upon whether or not the courtroom’s 124 member states – which don’t embrace Israel or its ally, the US – resolve to implement them or not.

A spokesperson for the UK Prime Minister didn’t remark particularly on the case, however mentioned that the UK would all the time “fulfil the obligations beneath the act and certainly our authorized obligations”.

This refers back to the Worldwide Legal Court docket Act 2001, which states that if the courtroom points a warrant for arrest, a Secretary of State “shall transmit the request…to an applicable judicial officer”. If the officer was glad the warrant was issued by the ICC, they “shall endorse the warrant for execution in the UK”.

Officers from the EU and throughout Europe have all made statements standing by the Court docket.

EU overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell mentioned “the choice of the courtroom must be revered and carried out”. The Dutch overseas minister mentioned “we’ll act on the arrest warrants” and Italy mentioned it might assist the Court docket, which ought to “play a authorized position and never a political position”.

The German chancellor’s spokesman mentioned Berlin had “distinctive relations with an ideal accountability for Israel” and additional motion would solely be taken when a keep by Netanyahu and Gallant was “foreseeable”.

Two of Israel’s closest allies within the EU rejected the Court docket’s determination. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mentioned he would invite Netanyahu to go to and “assure him that if he comes, the ICC’s ruling may have no impact in Hungary”.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala mentioned the courtroom had made “an unlucky determination” in equating “the elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organisation”.

South Africa, which has introduced a case in opposition to Israel on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice accusing it of genocide, welcomed the choice, and urged “all state events to behave in accordance with their obligations within the Rome Statute”.

South Africa didn’t honour an ICC arrest warrant in opposition to the Sudanese chief Omar al-Bashir when he visited the nation in June 2015.

The ICC prosecutor’s case in opposition to Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif stems from 7 October 2023, when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 individuals and taking 251 others again to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded by launching a navy marketing campaign to eradicate Hamas, throughout which not less than 44,000 individuals have been killed in Gaza, based on the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.

For Deif, an ICC pre-trial chamber discovered cheap grounds to consider he was “chargeable 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 remedy, torture; taking hostages; outrages upon private dignity; and rape and different type of sexual violence”.

It additionally mentioned there have been cheap 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 cheap grounds to consider that they “every bear prison accountability 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 cheap grounds to consider that “every bear prison accountability as civilian superiors for the struggle crime of deliberately directing an assault in opposition to the civilian inhabitants”.