US ‘fundamentally rejects’ ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu

The Hague-based court has accused the Israeli prime minister of war crimes in Gaza

Washington is opposed to the International Criminal Court decision to issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, the White House announced on Thursday.

The Hague-based ICC has accused Netanyahu and Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection to the Gaza conflict. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also announced similar charges against Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

“The US fundamentally rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials,” a spokesperson for the National Security Council said on Thursday. “We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision.”

The ICC “does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” the spokesperson added.

The court’s move comes just days after the incoming leader of the US Senate Republicans called for sanctions against the judiciary body unless it dropped the investigation into the Israeli leadership.

While Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that gave the ICC its powers, the court has jurisdiction over the West Bank and Gaza, which international law considers occupied Palestinian territories.

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The EU has taken a different position on the warrants from Washington. The bloc’s foreign policy commissioner, Josep Borrell, called the ICC warrants non-political and said the member states should respect and implement them.

The Netherlands “will act on the arrest warrants” and “fully comply” with the ICC, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp told parliament. The French Foreign Ministry said the warrants were “in line with ICC statutes” but that arresting Netanyahu if he came to visit would be “legally complex.”

Italy, Sweden, Norway and Ireland have also made statements in support of the ICC, expressing faith in its standards, independence, and integrity.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have denounced the warrants and accused the ICC of anti-Semitism. The ICC “has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X.

“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC,” Netanyahu said. His National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the court “anti-Semitic through and through” and urged a response that would include sanctions and the annexation of the West Bank.

The ICC has accused Netanyahu and Gallant of using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, and deliberately depriving the enclave’s civilian population of essential supplies such as food, water, and medicine without any “obvious military necessity.” The charges are part of a broader ICC investigation that includes alleged crimes Hamas committed during its October 7 attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu and Gallant could face arrest if they travel to any of the 123 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute.