Paris is backing Monday’s decision by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“We support the International Court of Justice, its independence and the fight against impunity in any situation,” said Stéphane Séjourné, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs.
“France has been warning for many months of the need for strict compliance with international humanitarian law, and in particular of the unacceptable level of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and inadequate humanitarian access,” the statement continued.
The statement also supported ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Hamas terror leaders.
“France condemned the anti-Semitic massacres perpetrated by Hamas” during the Oct. 7 attack the terror group led on the northwestern Negev, which was “accompanied by acts of torture and sexual violence,” it said.
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” Khan told CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour.
Charges against Hamas’s leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and military chief Mohammed Deif include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention,” he said.
