Netanyahu, Gallant hold consultations amid ICC’s efforts to issue arrest warrants against them

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with other officials Thursday to discuss efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against them.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today held an additional consultation with the participation of the relevant political echelon and the Attorney General (Gali Baharav Miara) on the issue of the International Criminal Court,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

“The Attorney General reiterated her position regarding the establishment of a State Commission of Inquiry to examine the humanitarian situation in Gaza even though, according to the view of the Attorney General herself, there is no certainty that establishing this commission would lead to the cancellation of the request to issue the warrants,” the statement added.

On May 20, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that the court was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of committing war crimes.

Khan said at the time that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed in Palestinian territories in Gaza starting from at least Oct. 8.

If arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant would be unable to travel to any of the 124 member countries of the ICC, where its rulings are binding.

Israel does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction. The court, established in 2002, accepted Palestine as a member after 13 years.

The ICC is an independent international body not affiliated with the UN or any other global body.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed more than 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,400, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio