Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears an arrest warrant by the ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC) may soon be on its way to issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Defense Chief Herzl Halevi.

The Jerusalem Post claims that.

Now Netanyahu is said to be “unusually stressed” about the situation, several Israeli media reports.

Crisis meeting held

Rumors that the prosecutor at the ICC, Karim Khan, is on the way to issuing arrest warrants against high-ranking political and military leaders have been circulating for some time.

According to the newspaper Haaretz, the arrest warrant will involve accusations of suspected war crimes committed in Gaza, and may be issued as early as this week.

The online newspaper Ynet quotes a source in the Israeli team that handles international lawsuits in the Hague courts.

This source claims it is possible that an arrest warrant may have been issued in secret, and that the persons concerned will only be made aware of this when and if they visit European countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.

These countries are then obliged to arrest the accused.

Israel has not ratified the Rome Statute. On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority has, and the ICC therefore considers that it has jurisdiction over what is happening in Gaza.

On Friday, Netanyahu came out hard against the ICC on X, formerly Twitter:

– Under my leadership, Israel will never accept that the ICC attempts to undermine our right to self-defense, Netanyahu wrote.

According to the Israeli TV channel Channel 12, a crisis meeting about this was already held in mid-April. According to the channel, Netanyahu himself participated in this, together with, among others, Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

There they are said to have decided that Israel should turn to the ICC and other “diplomatic persons with influence” in an attempt to stop this, the channel claims.

Hoping for US help

According to several Israeli media, there is now a large-scale diplomatic effort against the United States to stop prosecutor Khan and the ICC, writes the Jerusalem Post.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, wrote on Friday on X that the ICC must immediately withdraw any arrest warrant, as Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorist organizations.

President Biden, for his part, has not commented.

– Where is President Biden? Why is he silent when Israel is potentially going to be thrown under the bus, says an Israeli diplomatic source to the Jerusalem Post.

On Monday, the US State Department told the press that they believe it is important to take a step back in this matter.

– Since Biden has come to power, we have been in contact with the ICC on a number of issues. But as far as this investigation is concerned, we are ready. We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the situation with the Palestinians, said US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel.

That the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Gaza was reiterated by the White House’s press officer, Karine Jean-Pierre, on the same day.

In recent times, Israel must have put in extra effort to show that it supports humanitarian efforts, as it is believed that part of the accusations are believed to be that the Israeli authorities are knowingly and willingly “exposing Palestinians in Gaza to starvation”. , writes the Jerusalem Post.