Israel’s Gallant calls ICC prosecutor moves against him and Netanyahu ‘disgraceful’

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described on Thursday a request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor for arrest warrants against him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “disgraceful” bid to interfere in the Gaza war.

“The attempt by Prosecutor Karim Khan to deny the State of Israel the right to self-defence and to free its hostages must be rejected out of hand,” Gallant said in a post on X.

In his statement announcing the application for arrest warrants on Monday, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan had stressed Israel had the right to defend its population.

“That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law”, he said.

He said that regardless of any military goals Israel wants to achieve in Gaza, the prosecution believes its means to achieve them – “namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population” – were criminal.

(Writing by Dan Williams, additional reporting by Stephanie van den Berg in The Hague, editing by Andrew Cawthorne)