Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant slammed the International Criminal Court’s decision to greenlight arrest warrants against him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, accusing the tribunal in The Hague of encouraging terrorism and murder.
“The ICC’s outrageous decision will live in infamy,” said Gallant, who now serves as a lawmaker for Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party after being dismissed as defense minister on Nov. 5.
“It places the State of Israel and the brutal terrorist organization Hamas in the same equation. Today’s decision legitimizes and rewards the murder, rape and kidnapping of Israeli children, women, and men,” Gallant wrote on X.
Gallant added, “The State of Israel will not be deterred—long gone are the days when the nation of Israel could not defend itself. The IDF will continue fighting to achieve the goals of this war: Dismantling Hamas, ensuring the return of the hostages, and enabling Israel’s northern communities to return to their homes.”
The former Israeli defense minister concluded his statement by saying he was “proud of the extraordinary privilege I had in leading Israel’s defense establishment during our hardest hour.”
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I on Thursday afternoon “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest,” it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the court ordered the arrest of Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of Hamas’s “military wing,” who according to the Israel Defense Forces was killed in a July airstrike.
Regarding Deif, the court said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that senior leaders of Hamas, comprising at least Mr. Deif, Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar, and Mr. [Ismail] Haniyeh, agreed to jointly carry out the 7 October 2023 Operation.”
Khan had requested warrants against former Hamas political leader Haniyeh and Hamas terrorist chief Sinwar, but dropped the legal proceedings after their deaths on July 31 and Oct. 16, respectively.
Roughly 1,200 civilians were murdered by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken into the Gaza Strip.
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state is recognized under international law.
The 123 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute are obligated to act on any arrest warrant it issues, raising the possibility that Netanyahu and Gallant could be placed under arrest while visiting these places.
Netanyahu earlier on Thursday slammed the ICC proceedings against him and Gallant as a “modern Dreyfus trial,” denouncing the Hague court in a statement as “a biased and discriminatory political body.”
