Israel lashes out at 'outrageous blood libel' after International Criminal Court requests arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes

Israel has lashed out the International Criminal Court after it requested an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war crime accusations.

British prosecutor Karim Khan said today he is seeking warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders.

An Israeli official slammed the ICC's move as a 'baseless blood libel' against the country, while senior figures including President Isaac Herzog called the move 'outragious,' saying it 'cannot be accepted by anyone'.

'[The] ICC prosecutor's baseless blood libel against Israel has crossed a red line in his lawfare efforts against the lone Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East,' the official said, according to the Financial Times.  

'The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and accomplishing all its just war objectives' in Gaza, the official added.

In an interview on Monday, Khan said the warrants are for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas terror group's deadly October 7 attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has said today he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant - as well as three Hamas leaders

He said warrants were being sought for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (aka Mohammed Deif), the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades - Hamas' military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader.

Khan told CNN that the charges against the trio include 'extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.'

'The world was shocked on the 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel,' Khan told CNN host Christiane Amanpour, adding that 'people have suffered enormously.'

In a separate statement, he said that he saw for himself 'the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the unconscionable crimes charged in the applications filed today. 

'Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability.' 

He also said the ICC was applying for warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for their part in the assault on the Gaza strip that continues today.

'We have applied for warrants – of course the judges must determine whether or not to issue them, but we have applied today,' he told Amanpour.

He said the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include 'crimes of causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.'

Speaking of Israel's actions, Khan said in a statement that 'the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known. 

'They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women,' he added.

Khan said arrest warrants were being sought for three Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar (pictured, file photo)

Warrants are also being sought by the ICC for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (aka Mohammed Deif, pictured left), the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades - Hamas' military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader who is based in Qatar

An arrest warrant is also being sought for Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (pictured)

Several senior Israeli officials slammed the ICC's move to seek warrants  against Netanyahu and his defence chief.

'Any attempt to draw parallels between these atrocious terrorists and a democratically elected government of Israel - working to fulfil its duty to defend and protect its citizens entirely in adherence to the principles of international law is outrageous and cannot be accepted by anyone,' President Herzog said.

Benny Gantz, an Israeli war cabinet minister, called the ICC's move a 'distortion'.

'Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,' he said.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said he would 'speak with foreign ministers of leading countries around the world to urge them to oppose the prosecutor's decision and declare that even if warrants are issued, they do not intend to enforce them against Israeli leaders.'

Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician and finance minister, said the decision was a 'show hypocrisy and Jew-hatred'.

'Arrest warrants against them are arrest warrants against us all,' he said. 

Foreign leaders also rebuked the ICC for seeking the warrants.

A spokesperson for British prime minister Rishi Sunak said: 'This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in.' 

'We fully respect the independence of the ICC,' Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer said. 'The fact however that the leader of the terrorist organisation Hamas whose declared goal is the extinction of the State of Israel is being mentioned at the same time as the democratically elected representatives of that very State is non-comprehensible.'

Hamas also responded to the news. 

'Hamas strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders,' the terror group said.

'Hamas... demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance, for violating UN conventions and resolutions.'

On the other hand, war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody praised the ICC.

"Many thought this request would never come. ... Israeli leaders are finally facing a legal reckoning for their actions,' he said.

'Top Hamas officials likewise face justice for the cruel and inhuman taking of hostages and other crimes against humanity.

'ICC warrants if approved would make Netanyahu a wanted man, in the same category as (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.'

In an interview on Monday, Karim Khan (pictured in April) said the warrants are for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the terror group's deadly October 7 attack and Israel's subsequent war in the Gaza Strip

The United Nations and other aid agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of hindering aid deliveries throughout the war. Israel denies this, saying there are no restrictions on aid entering Gaza and accusing the UN of failing to distribute aid. 

The UN says aid workers have repeatedly come under Israeli fire, and also says ongoing fighting and a security vacuum have impeded deliveries. 

Israel launched its war in response to an October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. 

The Israeli offensive has killed around 35,000 Palestinians, at least half of them women and children, according to the latest estimates by Gaza health officials.

The Israeli offensive has also triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, displacing roughly 80 percent of the population and leaving hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation, according to UN officials. 

The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.

Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. 

But Khan's announcement deepens Israel's isolation as it presses ahead with its war, and the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.

Both Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza as Israel tries to hunt them down. But Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Islamic militant group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.

Meanwhile on Monday, Gallant said the Israeli military would expand its operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in talks with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who met with Israeli military leadership in Tel Aviv.

Sullivan's visit comes two weeks into the military's foray into Rafah, where troops have been battling Hamas fighters and escalating bombardment. 

The Biden administration has opposed a full-fledged invasion of Rafah because of fears for the civilian population.

Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 19, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas

Palestinians salvage items from the rubble of a family house that was hit overnight in Israeli bombardment in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah in southern Gaza on May 20, 2024

So far Israeli forces have mainly been operating in eastern parts of the city, but the fighting has already triggered an exodus of more than 810,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.

'I emphasised to him (Sullivan) Israel's duty to expand the ground operation in Rafah, to dismantle Hamas and to return the hostages,' Gallant said in a post on X.

In his visit, Sullivan was also discussing postwar plans for Gaza at a time when Netanyahu faces criticism from the other members of his War Cabinet.

Netanyahu's main political rival Benny Gantz has threatened to leave the government if a plan is not created by June 8 that includes an international administration for postwar Gaza.