Key Points
- The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Warrants have also been issued for former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas official Ibrahim al-Masri.
- The warrants have been issued by the ICC in relation to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has responded after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri.
The move comes after ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced in May that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the by Hamas last year and the Israeli military response in the Gaza Strip.
Wong took to X on Friday to say Australia “respects the independence of the ICC and its important role in upholding international law”.
She said the federal government had been “clear that all parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law”.
“Civilians must be protected. Hostages must be released. Rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian relief must reach civilians. Aid workers must be protected to enable their lifesaving work,” Wong wrote.
Wong’s response differed to that of the United States. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden’s administrations “fundamentally” rejected “the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials”.
“We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision,” Jean-Pierre said, without providing further detail on the process errors claim.
It came as Biden in a statement labelled the ICC’s arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous”.
“Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required. However, Israel has rejected the Hague-based court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu rejects ICC warrants
“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions levelled against it by ICC,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement in response to the warrant, adding that the prime minister won’t “give in to pressure” in the defence of Israel’s citizens.
The International Criminal Court has announced its decision to issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and a senior Hamas official. Source: SIPA USA / ANP
The ICC has “lost all legitimacy” after issuing the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said.
“A dark moment for the International Criminal Court,” Saar said on X, adding that it had issued “absurd orders without authority”.
The ICC said there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity.
These include “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” against Palestinians after Israel launched its attack on the enclave following Hamas’ October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.
Arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip conflict.
The warrant for Deif lists charges of mass killings during the October 7 attacks on Israel that led to an escalation of the Gaza war and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.
, but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.
The prosecution indicated it would continue to gather information with respect to his reported death.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Source: AP / Ohad Zwigenberg
Hamas welcomed the warrants against Gallant and Netanyahu and urged the court to expand accountability to all Israeli leaders.
There was no immediate comment on the arrest warrant from Gallant, who was after Netanyahu said he had lost trust in him over the management of the ongoing military operations in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Israeli officials criticise ICC over arrest warrants
In a rare show of unity, staunch Netanyahu critics joined forces with government allies to criticise the court for seeking the duo’s arrest, saying blame for the war, which has devastated swathes of the Gaza Strip and left tens of thousands dead, lay with militant group Hamas.
“The ICC arrest warrants are a mark of shame not of Israel’s leaders but of the ICC itself, and its members,” former prime minister Naftali Bennett wrote on X.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid called the court move “a reward for terrorism”.
Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the Hamas attack but quit in June, criticised what he called the “moral blindness” of the ICC, calling the ruling a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten”.
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads a small ultranationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, said Israel should respond by annexing the .
Israel’s 13-month campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave’s population at least once, according to Gaza officials.
The Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, with more than 250 hostages taken, according to Israeli figures.
