Netanyahu rejects ICC arrest bid ‘with disgust’ over Gaza war

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday angrily condemned the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for seeking arrest warrants for him alongside Hamas’s leaders over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict.

Netanyahu said he rejected vehemently with disgust that democratic Israel had been compared with mass murderers, reported BBC.

US President Joe Biden echoed his comments saying that there was “no equivalence between Israel and Hamas”.

Karim Khan, the chief ICC prosecutor, said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant shared criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The ICC was also seeking a warrant for Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, over war crimes.

The US and Israel are not members of the ICC, which was set up in 2002.

The accusations against the Israeli and Hamas leaders were brought after the events of October 7, last year, when waves of Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 252 hostages to Gaza.

The attack triggered the current war in the Middle East where at least 35,500 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to theHamas health ministry.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, echoed the president’s condemnation, saying Washington fundamentally rejected the move.

Terming it shameful, Blinken said, ICC had no jurisdiction over the matter.