The court is also considering issuing arrest warrants for three senior Hamas officials, a move that US President Joe Biden called scandalous, saying there was “no equivalence” between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to the announcement by the International Criminal Court of an arrest warrant against him.
ICC Prosecutor General Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, were criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity that allegedly committed in Gaza.
But the Court is also studying the possibility of issuing arrest warrants against three senior Hamas officials on similar charges.
France and the United States are not aligned
France says it supports the ICC, “its independence, and the fight against impunity”, while US President Joe Biden described the decision as scandalous and declared that there was “no equivalence” between Israel and Hamas.
The State Department said the ICC did not have jurisdiction to investigate the case because Israel was not a signatory to the Rome Statute that founded the court.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said:
“This decision does not help and could jeopardize ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would allow hostages to be removed from Gaza and humanitarian aid delivered..”
Mixed reactions in Tel Aviv
The news sparked mixed reactions on the streets of Tel Aviv, a city that has seen weeks of massive protests, demanding that the Netanyahu administration do more to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
Tel Aviv resident Inbar Goldstein says:
“I don’t understand what world we live in, where there is symmetry between the leaders of a terrorist organization who committed mass killings and heads of state who were democratically elected.“
It is difficult at the moment to know the reaction of Gazans to this announcement from the ICC.
Sami Abu Zeid, displaced from Gaza City, says:
“We want decisive international resolutions. Decisive in solving problems. We are the victims, even though we have nothing to do with Israel or Hamas. We are neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad.“
ICC judges will now review the evidence and decide whether arrest warrants can be issued for the leaders of Israel and Hamas.