Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, is contemplating issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials in response to Israeli military action against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the ICC, Netanyahu stated in an announcement on X:
The International Criminal Court in The Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals. This would be an outrage of historic proportions. International bodies like the ICC arose in the wake of the Holocaust committed against the Jewish People. They were set up to prevent such horrors, to prevent future genocides. Yet now, the international court is trying to put Israel in the dock. It’s trying to put us in the dock as we defend ourselves against genocidal terrorists and regimes, Iran, of course, that openly works to destroy the one and only Jewish state.
Netanyahu said ICC allegations that Israeli leaders and soldiers are war criminals only exacerbate tensions, stating:
Branding Israel’s leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of Antisemitism, those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world. It will also be the first time that a democratic country, fighting for its life according to the rules of war, is itself accused of war crimes.
He claimed the Israeli military is acting in accordance with international law, and stated strikes against civilian infrastructure are the result of actions taken by Hamas:
The Israeli army, the IDF, is on of the most moral militaries in the world. It takes endless measures to prevent civilian casualties, measures that no other army takes. It does so while fighting a terrorist enemy which uses its own civilians as human shields. Hamas places its weapons, its terrorists, in hospitals, schools, mosques, and throughout civilian areas. They do this in order to win immunity and to maximize civilian casualties.
