Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant during a press conference at Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel. , Photo courtesy: Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (November 21, 2024) that the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court over the conduct of the Gaza war will not stop him from defending Israel.
“No outrageous anti-Israel decision will stop us – and it will not stop me – from defending our country by all means,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We will not bow to pressure,” he vowed.
Editorial Missing Accountability: On Israel and the October 7 Security Lapses
The prime minister, along with his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, has been accused of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” over Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He described Thursday’s decision as a “black day in the nation’s history.”
“The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was established to protect humanity, has today become the enemy of humanity,” he said, adding that the allegations were “completely baseless”.
The state’s current defense minister, Israel Katz, called the warrant a “moral outrage”, and said it “serves Iran, the snake’s head, and its proxies”.
President Isaac Herzog said in a statement posted on Twitter that the warrant “ignores the plight of the 101 Israeli hostages.” “This decision has chosen the side of terror and evil rather than democracy and freedom and has turned the system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,” he said.
Israel has been fighting in Gaza since October 2023, when a cross-border attack by Hamas militants killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to one. AFP Israeli official figures tally.
Its retaliatory campaign has killed 44,056 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers credible.
UN agencies have warned of a serious humanitarian crisis, including possible famine, due to food and medicine shortages in Gaza.
The court said it had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant committed the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as murder, torture and other crimes against humanity. Have taken criminal responsibility. Inhuman act.
Mr Netanyahu said the court was accusing Israel of “imaginary crimes” while ignoring “real war crimes, terrible war crimes being committed against us and against many others around the world.”
In addition to Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, the court also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the Hamas military wing, whom Israel said was killed in an airstrike last July.
Hamas has never confirmed his death.
Mr Netanyahu mocked the court’s decision to issue a warrant for “the body of Mohammed Deif”.
(with AFP input)
published – November 22, 2024 01:20 PM IST
