Netanyahu attacks ICC war crimes arrest warrants

KATHMANDU: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as “antisemitic” a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for war crimes against him and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

He said the ICC was “falsely” accusing them “of deliberately targeting civilians, this when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties”.

The ICC also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. Israel says he was killed in Gaza in July.

ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the three men bore “criminal responsibility” for crimes during the war between Israel and Hamas.

US President Joe Biden called the ICC move against Israeli officials “outrageous”.

“Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said in a statement. “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Both Israel and Hamas reject the allegations made by the ICC.

In a statement on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.”

He was referring to a high-profile case of antisemitism in France just over a century ago.

“The court in The Hague accuses us of a deliberate policy of starvation,” the Israeli PM said.

“This when we have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. We issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way – while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields.”

Netanyahu said Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s decision.

Just this week, the UN warned that Palestinians were “facing diminishing conditions for survival” in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces because virtually no aid had been delivered in 40 days.

-BBC