After more than a year of conflict in Gaza, the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday provoked the fury of Israel, and triggered the anger of its American ally. United States President Joe Biden deemed the arrest warrants issued by the world court against Israeli leaders “scandalous,” in a statement.
“Whatever the ICC may imply, there is no equivalence, none, between Israel and Hamas,” commented the American president after the international court issued arrest warrants against the Prime Minister Israeli Benyamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but also the head of the armed wing of Hamas Mohammed Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “We will always stand by Israel in the face of threats to its security,” the outgoing president wrote.
“Disturbing errors”
“We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor's eagerness to seek arrest warrants and by the troubling errors in the process that led to this decision,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson previously said. . He repeated that according to Washington, “the ICC did not have legal jurisdiction in this matter”.
The ICC is a permanent jurisdiction responsible for prosecuting and trying individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Founded in 2002, this institution which today has 124 member states has only handed down a handful of convictions since its creation. The United States, like Israel, is not part of it.
VideoICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and head of Hamas military wing
The spokesperson also assured that Washington was “discussing next steps with (its) partners, including Israel.” In the spring, when the ICC requested arrest warrants against the two Israeli leaders, Joe Biden had already described this decision as “scandalous”, already believing that there was “no equivalence between Israel and Hamas “.
For his part, future President Donald Trump did not react to these arrest warrants, but his future National Security Advisor Mike Waltz promised a “strong response” to the “anti-Semitic bias” of the ICC when the winner of the presidential election will be sworn in in January.
In Congress, Republicans unanimously called for sanctions against the international organization. “The International Criminal Court acted in the most absurd and irresponsible way possible,” criticized powerful senator Lindsey Graham, close to Donald Trump. “It is time for the United States Senate to act and sanction this irresponsible organization,” he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu promises to “continue to defend” Israel
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized an “anti-Semitic” decision. “No scandalous anti-Israeli decision will prevent us – and especially not me – from continuing to defend our country in any way,” he also said.
The ICC said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were “criminally responsible” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
This decision limits the travel of the two Israeli officials. Any of the court's 124 member states would theoretically be obligated to arrest them if they entered their territory, even though dozens of countries do not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction.
Hamas welcomed the indictment of Israeli leaders as an “important step towards justice”, without mentioning the arrest warrant announced simultaneously against its military leader. According to Israel, Mohammed Deif was killed by a strike on July 13 in southern Gaza, which the Palestinian Islamist movement denies.
The Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has left at least 44,056 Palestinians dead, according to figures from the Health Ministry of the Islamist movement's government, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It followed the unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos in Israeli territory on October 7, which led to the death of 1,205 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
