Israeli government officials and opposition leaders rejected the arrest warrants Thursday issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu called the arrest warrants "false, and politically biased."
The Israeli premier claimed in a statement from his office that "there is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza."
President Isaac Herzog said the warrants were "a dark day for justice."
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called them a "dark moment," claiming that the Hague-based court "lost all legitimacy for its existence and activities."
Despite ongoing bloodshed in the Palestinian enclave, Sa'ar claimed that the Israeli army was operating "according to international law."
Transport Minister Miri Regev termed the warrants a "legal absurdity."
"Israel will not apologize for protecting its citizens - this is not a crime," Regev wrote on X.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir labeled the decision "anti-Semitic," saying the response to the court will be through "applying sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)."
Opposition leader Yair Lapid slammed the warrants and claimed Israel is "defending itself."
Former War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz described the arrest warrants as "moral blindness."
The ICC announced in a landmark move Thursday it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The court's Pre-Trial Chamber I said it "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."
"The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity," the decision said.
Israel has launched a genocidal war on Gaza following an attack last year by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas. The ensuing response by Israel has killed more than 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 104,000.
The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with figures and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
