Israel on Wednesday informed the International Criminal Court that it will appeal the two arrest warrants issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
Netanyahu’s office explained – in a statement – that Israel also asked the court to suspend the implementation of the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant pending the outcome of the appeal.
He added that US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed Netanyahu, during today’s meeting in Jerusalem, on “a series of measures that he is proposing in Congress against the International Criminal Court and the countries that may cooperate with it.”
He concluded that if the court rejected the appeal, “it would prove to Israel’s friends in the United States and all over the world how biased the International Criminal Court is against the State of Israel.”
The court issued arrest warrants last Thursday against Netanyahu and Gallant, accusing them of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, in addition to a warrant against the military commander of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Muhammad al-Deif.
This comes as Israel continues its war on Gaza since the seventh of last October, leaving tens of thousands martyred, wounded and missing amid a humanitarian situation described as catastrophic and a worsening famine looming over this besieged sector.