Gaza war: Israel’s defence minister rejects ICC warrant requests

Mr Khan’s case against the leaders of Hamas and Israel stems from the events of 7 October, when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 252 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign to eliminate Hamas, during which at least 35,640 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Khan accused the Hamas leaders of crimes against humanity and war crimes including extermination, murder, the taking of hostages, rape and torture.

For the Israeli leaders, the accusations included deliberate attacks on civilians, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war, as well as extermination and murder.

“International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Mr Khan said. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader – no-one – can act with impunity.”

In a statement, Mr Gallant insisted that Israeli forces were fighting in Gaza “in accordance with international law, while taking unprecedented measures to facilitate humanitarian aid”.

“I stand with, support, and commend our troops, who are defending our people and fulfilling the extraordinary privilege and obligation of defending ourselves, by ourselves,” he said.

He added: “The attempt made by the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to turn things around will not succeed – the parallel he has drawn between the Hamas terrorist organization and the State of Israel is despicable.”

Mr Gallant reiterated that Israel was not a signatory of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, and did not recognise its authority.

“Karim Khan’s attempt to deny the State of Israel the right to defend herself and ensure the release of the hostages held in Gaza must be rejected explicitly.”

There was no immediate response from Mr Khan to the remarks or to the statement made by Mr Netanyahu, who denounced the warrant applications for him and Mr Gallant as a “moral outrage of historic proportions”.

Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, UK and other countries – demanded the “cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance” and denounced what it called Mr Khan’s “attempts… to equate the victim with the executioner”.

The group also complained that the application for warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant had come “seven months late”, and that other Israeli political and military leaders had not been named alongside them.