WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to move forward with arrest warrants for Hamas leaders and top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close U.S. ally.
Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders are among those the ICC is seeking arrest warrants for on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Hamas leaders face charges over the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and hundreds were kidnapped, assaulted and dozens more killed in captivity. It was the largest killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
For Netanyahu and other Israeli government officials, the charges stem from the war in Gaza, where over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, overseen by Hamas.
The charges against Israeli officials include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders call the warrants against them an “outrage of historic proportions.”
This afternoon, the State Department voiced its opposition to the warrants. A department spokesperson said by doing this, the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, has short-circuited a process that was underway to gather facts. The State Department also said this could impact ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
“The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists. There should be no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller during a Monday afternoon press briefing. “Furthermore, the United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter,” Miller added.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress shared similar opposition to the announcement.
“The International Criminal Court is a dictatorial institution that operates on behalf of European bureaucrats. Their decision today to pursue arrest warrants not only for evil Hamas leaders, but also for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is equating Israel’s defensive actions with the abhorrent crimes of terrorists. Through their absurd statement, the ICC is attempting to criminalize Israel’s right to exist. What’s more, Israel isn’t even a party to the ICC, yet they still bent over backwards to cooperate in their sham investigation,” said Rep. Jack Bergman (R – MI) in a statement to WZMQ 19 News. “I will not stand for these intimidation tactics, and neither should my colleagues in Congress. We must all unite behind our closest ally and protect the rights – and lives – of the Israeli people.”
“Requesting arrest warrants for both Israel and Hamas leaders suggests there is a moral equivalence between them—there is none and it’s disgusting to suggest otherwise. The ICC’s credibility is now in shambles and they have only themselves to thank,” said Senator John Fetterman (D- PA) Monday morning on X, formerly Twitter.
A panel of ICC judges will now consider the application for the arrest warrants. If the court grants that application and issues the warrants, any country that is a member of the ICC would have to arrest them and extradite them to the Netherlands.
