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Netanyahu’s office: ICC ruling is ‘absurd and false lies’ and ‘antisemitic’
In his first response to the ICC issuing a warrant for his arrest on allegations of war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has described the ruling as “absurd and false lies” and said the decision is “antisemitic.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office say they categorically reject the claims levelled against Israel’s prime minister. Former defense minister Yoav Gallant has also been issued with an arrest warrant.
Netanyahu’s office said the country will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred, and will not retreat” until, it said, all of Israel’s war aims are achieved.
The three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue the warrants: “The chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
In October 2023, two days after the surprise attack by Hamas inside southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people and led to about 250 people being seized and abducted as hostages, Gallant said “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
About 100 people are still believed held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, at least some of which are known to have been killed. Hamas-led authorities in Gaza have put the death toll from Israel’s 13-month long military campaign at over 40,000, although it has not been possible for journalists to verify the casualty figures.
Key events
Israeli security minister Ben-Gvir: Israel should annex West Bank in response to ICC arrest warrants
A member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has called for Israel to annex the West Bank in response to the international criminal court issuing an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister, who is accused of war crimes.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister said the court was “antisemitic from beginning to end” and the decision “an unprecedented disgrace.”
Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly called for Jewish settlement of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, referred to the area by its biblical name, saying:
The response to the arrest warrants: applying sovereignty over all areas of Judea and Samaria, Jewish settlement throughout the entire land.
On Friday the Times of Israel reported that Ben-Gvir said he was the only cabinet member who voted against more humanitarian aid for the beseiged Gaza Strip, saying “I believe that as long as we have hostages in Gaza, we must not give any concessions to the Strip, not even to the civilian population.”
Democratic party US senator John Fetterman has given perhaps the most concise political reaction to the decision of the international criminal court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant – alongside Hamas leader Mohammed Deif – for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
In a post to social media, coupled with a screenshot of a BBC News headline about the arrest warrants, Fetterman wrote “No standing, relevance, or path. Fuck that,” adding an emoji of the Israeli flag.
One thing that is likely to provoke additional reaction among pro-Israeli politicians in the US is that the court announcement today specifically at one point mentions Israel responding to pressure from across the Atlantic.
In one passage, it says:
The Chamber also noted that decisions allowing or increasing humanitarian assistance into Gaza were often conditional. They were not made to fulfil Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law or to ensure that the civilian population in Gaza would be adequately supplied with goods in need. In fact, they were a response to the pressure of the international community or requests by the United States of America. In any event, the increases in humanitarian assistance were not sufficient to improve the population’s access to essential goods.
It goes on to say that Israel ignored pleas from “the UN security council, UN secretary general, states, and governmental and civil society organisations about the humanitarian situation in Gaza”, and says that “only minimal humanitarian assistance was authorised.”
As a result of this, and “Mr Netanyahu’s statement connecting the halt in the essential goods and humanitarian aid with the goals of war,” it said “The Chamber therefore found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”
Defense minister Katz: ICC decision is ‘moral disgrace entirely tainted by antisemitism’
Israel Katz, who recently replaced Yoav Gallant as defense minister, has described the decision to issue his predecessor with an arrest warrant alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif as “a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism.”
Katz, who took up the defense post after Netanyahu sacked Gallant, triggering protests across Israel, said in a social media post:
The decision … is a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international judicial system to an unprecedented low. This shameful decision serves Iran, the head of the snake, and its proxies.
The ICC has chosen to lend support to a biased and corrupt prosecutor rather than confront those who openly seek the destruction of the State of Israel.
We will not allow a hostile, hypocritical, and illegitimate body to harm our leaders or our soldiers. We will continue to defend the citizens of Israel with determination and pride, standing firm against anyone who attempts to undermine our right to self-defense.
Anyone who thinks they can deter us from achieving all our war objectives through absurd decisions that serve Iran and its proxies will face a strong and resolute state, acting with power in every arena—military, political, and legal—to counter every threat.
Katz added that he stands firmly with Netanyahu and Gallant.
US Republican representative Mike Waltz, who is president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security advisor in the incoming US administration, has said “You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC and UN come January,” when Trump takes office.
In a post on social media Waltz said “The ICC has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the US government. Israel has lawfully defended its people and borders from genocidal terrorists.”
Reuters reported Waltz would be Trump’s pick for the role earlier this month. The national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation, and isresponsible for briefing the president on key national security issues and coordinating with different agencies.
Here is more of the statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, in which the decision of the international criminal court to issue an arrest warrant for him is described as being driven by “antisemitic hatred toward Israel”:
Israel utterly rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the international criminal court, which is a biased and discriminatory political body.
There is no war more justified than the one Israel is conducting in Gaza since 7 October, 2023, after the terrorist organisation Hamas launched a deadly attack against it, committing the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The decision was made by a corrupt chief prosecutor attempting to save himself from serious allegations of sexual harassment, and by biased judges driven by antisemitic hatred toward Israel.
France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine appears to have sidestepped a question about French reaction to the international criminal court issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
Reuters reports that asked about it, Lemoine said “It’s a point that is legally complex so I’m not going to comment on it today.”
Julian Borger
Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, offers this analysis, saying being accused of war crimes will be a hard stigma for Benjamin Netanyahu to shrug off
The arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court (ICC) represent an earthquake on the world’s legal landscape: the first time a western ally from a modern democracy has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body.
Inside Israel itself, the warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, will not have an immediate impact. In the short term they are likely to rally support around the prime minister from a defiant Israeli public.
In the longer term, however, the enormity of the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant could grow heavier over time, shrinking the patch on the globe still open to them. The stigma of accused war criminal is a hard one to shrug off.
In the world as viewed from The Hague, the approval of warrants by the ICC judges will forever transform the court’s standing. The US – not an ICC member anyway – will react furiously but at a cost to its own international credibility, and its remaining claim to stand for global justice.
Other Israeli allies like Germany will distance themselves (the Starmer government in the UK can be expected to craft a studiously neutral response), but many countries, who have hitherto seen the ICC as a tool of the western world, are likely to embrace the decision and the tribunal itself.
Read more of Julian Borger’s analysis here: Accused war criminal status will be hard stigma for Netanyahu to shrug off
In the UK, Amnesty International have put pressure on the government to support the decision by the international criminal court.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said:
In opposition the foreign secretary said in government his party would comply with any arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court, and we now need to see David Lammy and the whole UK government unequivocally backing this vitally important move by the ICC.
The UK’s standing as a genuine supporter of the rule of law requires consistency and even-handedness. If war crimes are wrong when carried out by Russian forces in unlawfully-occupied Ukraine, then they’re equally wrong when carried out by Israeli forces in unlawfully-occupied Palestinian territory.
In one portion of today’s announcement by the international criminal court it appears to concede that it has not agreed with all of the assessments of evidence put forward to it by the prosecution.
In a section regarding what it describes as “intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza,” it says:
The Chamber assessed that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza.
In this regard, the Chamber found that the material provided by the prosecution only allowed it to make findings on two incidents that qualified as attacks that were intentionally directed against civilians.
Reasonable grounds to believe exist that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, despite having measures available to them to prevent or repress the commission of crimes or ensure the submittal of the matter to the competent authorities, failed to do so.
Reuters has a quick snap that Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi said the ICC’s decision must be respected and implemented, adding Palestinians deserved justice after what he described as Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza.
The EU’s outgoing top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said the ICC arrest warrants for two senior Israeli leaders and one Hamas leader are not “political”.
He said the court’s decisions should be respected and implemented.
Borrell will leave the post at the end of the month, with Kaja Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia taking his place.
Sam Jones
Sam Jones is the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent
Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s labour minister and one of the country’s deputy prime ministers, has posted a message on BlueSky and X in which she shares news of the issuing of the arrest warrants.
“Always on the side of justice and international law,” it says. “The genocide of the Palestinian people cannot go unpunished.”
Spain’s socialist-led coalition government has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
A year ago, the Israeli government recalled its ambassador in Madrid and said it would be reprimanding Spain’s top diplomat in Tel Aviv after the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he had “genuine doubts” about whether Israel was complying with international humanitarian law in its offensive in Gaza.
At the end of May this year, Spain joined Ireland and Norway in officially recognising a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s office: ICC ruling is ‘absurd and false lies’ and ‘antisemitic’
In his first response to the ICC issuing a warrant for his arrest on allegations of war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has described the ruling as “absurd and false lies” and said the decision is “antisemitic.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office say they categorically reject the claims levelled against Israel’s prime minister. Former defense minister Yoav Gallant has also been issued with an arrest warrant.
Netanyahu’s office said the country will “not yield to pressure, will not be deterred, and will not retreat” until, it said, all of Israel’s war aims are achieved.
The three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue the warrants: “The chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
In October 2023, two days after the surprise attack by Hamas inside southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people and led to about 250 people being seized and abducted as hostages, Gallant said “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
About 100 people are still believed held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, at least some of which are known to have been killed. Hamas-led authorities in Gaza have put the death toll from Israel’s 13-month long military campaign at over 40,000, although it has not been possible for journalists to verify the casualty figures.
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said today’s decision was important because it breaks “the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law.”
In a statement, Jarrah said:
The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law. This is all the more important given the brazen attempts to obstruct the course of justice at the court.
Whether the ICC can effectively deliver on its mandate will depend on governments’ willingness to support justice no matter where abuses are committed and by whom. These warrants should finally push the international community to address atrocities and secure justice for all victims in Palestine and Israel.
Last week a report by Human Rights Watch said Israel was using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which amounted to a crime against humanity.
Reuters reports that in a statement Hamas has said it welcomes the decision of the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
In the statement, Hamas said “We call on the international criminal court to expand the scope of accountability to all criminal occupation leaders.”