Israel, Hamas reject bid before ICC to arrest leaders for war crimes

Israel and Hamas, engaged in heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip, both angrily rejected on Monday moves to arrest their leaders for war crimes made before an international court.

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor Karim Khan said he had applied for arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders over the conflict.

Israel slammed as a "historical disgrace" the demand targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, while the Palestinian group Hamas said it "strongly condemns" the move.

Israel's top ally the United States joined the condemnation, while France said it supported the court's independence and its "fight against impunity".

Netanyahu said he rejected "with disgust The Hague prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas".

Khan said in a statement that he was seeking warrants against the Israeli leaders for crimes including "wilful killing", "extermination and/or murder", and "starvation".

He said Israel had committed "crimes against humanity" during the war, started by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack, as part "of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population".

Khan also said the leaders of Hamas, including Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, "bear criminal responsibility" for actions committed during the October 7 attack.

These included "taking hostages", "rape and other acts of sexual violence", and "torture", he said.

The warrants would mean that any of the 124 ICC member states would technically be obliged to arrest.

"International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all," Khan said. "No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader — no one — can act with impunity."

The warrants, if granted by the ICC judges, would mean that any of the 124 ICC member states would technically be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and the others if they travelled there, a point noted by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

However, the court has no mechanism to enforce its warrants.

US President Joe Biden denounced the ICC bid as "outrageous" and said "there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas".

Germany agreed, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying the warrants gave "a false impression of equivalence".

Biden also rejected accusations in a separate tribunal, the UN International Court of Justice, where South Africa has alleged that Israel's war in Gaza is genocidal.

"What's happening is not genocide," Biden told a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House on Monday.

South Africa welcomed the move at the ICC.

Agence France-Presse