The United States President, Joe Biden has slammed the International Crimnal Court for issuing arrest warrants against top Israeli leaders.
Biden described the warrants as “outrageous”.
Recall that the ICC had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
According to the court, the arrest warrants followed suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli leaders.
Reacting, Biden in a statement from the White House said “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”.
In an earlier statement, the White House also said it “fundamentally rejects” the calls for arrests of the Israeli PM.
“We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision.
“The United States has been clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” a National Security Council spokesperson said.
The ICC’s warrants have sparked a global debate, with some countries supporting the court’s authority while others, including Israel’s closest allies, strongly reject it.
The court’s ruling focuses on allegations that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes, including starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity, such as murder and persecution.
Netanyahu dismissed the ICC’s decision, calling it “antisemitic” and comparing it to the infamous Dreyfus Trial of the late 19th century. He added, “The court in The Hague accuses us of a deliberate policy of starvation, 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, and 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 vowed that Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s decision.
Gallant echoed Netanyahu’s sentiments, criticising the ICC for equating Israel’s actions with Hamas’ alleged atrocities, which include the killing of babies and the rape of women. He called the decision “legitimising” acts of terrorism and urged that the focus should be on Hamas’ crimes.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also condemned the ICC’s ruling, asserting that while he disagreed with Netanyahu’s handling of the war, he did not believe Israel had committed genocide or war crimes deserving of these charges.
Meanwhile, Palestinians and Hamas have welcomed the ICC’s decision. Hamas described the move as an “important historical precedent” and a correction of what they see as long-standing injustice. Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope that Israeli leaders would now be held accountable for their actions.
However, countries like Hungary and the Czech Republic have rejected the ICC’s ruling, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declaring that the decision would have no effect in Hungary.
The warrants stem from the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people and the capture of 251 hostages. Israel’s subsequent military response has led to heavy casualties in Gaza, with over 44,000 people killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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