President Joe Biden has called the decision for the International Criminal Court to seek an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “outrageous”.
The chief prosecutor of the ICC is seeking warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.
Karim Khan said on Monday that he believes Mr Netanyahu, his defence minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders - Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh - are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel in connection with their actions during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
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.
Reacting to the news, Mr Biden said: “The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous.
“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.
“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security."
Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Mr Netanyahu and Mr 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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the chief prosecutor's decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel's leaders is "a historic disgrace that will be remembered forever."
He said he would form a special committee to fight back against any such action and would work with world leaders to ensure that any such warrants are not enforced on Israel's leaders.
Benny Gantz, a former military chief and member of Israel's War Cabinet with Netanyahu and Gallant, harshly criticized Khan's announcement, saying Israel fights with "one of the strictest" moral codes and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself.
"The State of Israel is waging one of the just wars fought in modern history following a reprehensible massacre perpetrated by terrorist Hamas on the 7th of October," he said. "The prosecutor's position to apply for arrest warrants is in itself a crime of historic proportion to be remembered for generations.”
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.
The Hamas terror group denounced the ICC prosecutor's request to seek the arrests of its leaders.
In a statement, it accused the prosecutor of trying to "equate the victim with the executioner." It said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including "armed resistance."
Israel launched its war in response to an October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 250 others taken hostage.
The Israeli offensive has killed over 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% of the population and leaving hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation, according to UN officials.
Speaking of the Israeli 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.”
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 United Nations 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.
Of the Hamas actions on October 7 Khan, who visited the region in December, 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.”
Israel has faced increasing criticism of the war as the death toll has climbed and the humanitarian crisis deepen.
Israel is also facing a South African case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. Israel denies those charges.
