Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed against the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday for its decision earlier this week to request arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas officials Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.
"It’s outrageous," Netanyahu told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "This is a rogue prosecutor who's gone amok. He's out to demonize the one and only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East, and it's both false and dangerous.Khan accused Netanyahu and Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He alleged seven crimes committed by the top Israeli officials, including the "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare," "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population" and "willful killing."Netanyahu criticized the ICC for requesting arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas officials at the same time, arguing there is an attempt to create a "false symmetry" between the "democratically elected leaders of Israel and the terrorist tyrants of Hamas." He added that the ICC’s decision would be like requesting arrest warrants for Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler during World War II or President George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden during the war on terror.