The G7 countries announced on Tuesday that they would respect their “respective” obligations vis-à-vis the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In exercising its right to defend itself, Israel must fully respect its obligations under international law in all circumstances, including international humanitarian law,” wrote the G7 foreign ministers in a joint statement following from a meeting of the group near Rome.
“We reiterate our commitment to international humanitarian law and will respect our respective obligations,” they added, the adjective “respective” referring to the fact that unlike the other members of the group (Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan and Italy), the United States does not recognize the ICC.
The International Criminal Court, which Israel has not joined and from which the United States has withdrawn, last week issued arrest warrants against Benyamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the armed wing of Palestinian Hamas Mohammed Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“We emphasize that there can be no equivalence between the terrorist group Hamas and the State of Israel,” the G7 countries said.
A source close to the negotiations at the last G7 meeting under the Italian presidency indicated that the wording of the communiqué had been weighed with a trebuchet to satisfy all the countries in the group and reach agreement on the lowest “common denominator”.
“But what was said during the discussions was much broader and more strategic than what appears in the text,” said this source.
At the end of the day, the head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani, whose country chairs the G7 this year, recalled that “not all G7 countries are part of the ICC”. “We found a common position, this is what we asked for, it is an Italian request and there was a positive response from the other” members of the G7, he added.
He also emphasized the difficulties of implementing the arrest warrant issued by the ICC: “Netanyahu will never go to a country where he could be arrested.”
“We will respect the law,” he added about his country, while qualifying: “we must see what the law says, and before understanding whether the highest leaders of a State are protected ( …) and whether the decisions (of the ICC) apply to countries that are not members of the ICC”.
Apart from a visit to the United States this year, Mr. Netanyahu has not visited a G7 country since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel on October 7 2023.
This attack resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
More than 44,249 Palestinians were killed in Israeli reprisals on the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
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