Photo: Sebastien Scheiner Associated Press Demanding warrants against “the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of the State of Israel alongside the abominable Nazi monsters of Hamas” is a “frontal attack” and “a historic dishonor that will forever be remembered.” , estimates Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz (photo) in a press release.
France Media Agency in Jerusalem
Posted at 9:43 a.m.
- Middle East
The head of Israeli diplomacy denounced on Monday the “scandalous decision” of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, “a historic dishonor” for the Hague-based court.
Demanding warrants against “the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of the State of Israel alongside the abominable Nazi monsters of Hamas,” “Hamas murderers and rapists” who “are committing crimes against “humanity against our brothers and sisters” is a “frontal attack” and “a historic dishonor that will forever be remembered,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a statement.
Israel intends “to fight against this decision which aims above all to tie the hands of the State of Israel and to deny it the right to defend itself”, adds the minister while Israel has been engaged since 227 days in conflict with Hamas.
The war was triggered by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. Of the 252 people then taken as hostages, 124 are still detained in Gaza, including 37 dead according to the army.
Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas which took over power in Gaza in 2007 and which it considers terrorist along with the United States and the European Union.
Since the start of the conflict, more than 35,450 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Gaza Strip, devastated by bombings and the Israeli army's ground offensive, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
On Monday, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said he had requested arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for crimes including “deliberately starving civilians”, “homicide intentional” and “extermination and/or murder.”
Charges against Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinouar, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza, include “ extermination,” “rape and other forms of sexual violence,” and “hostage-taking as a war crime.”
“No force in the world will not prevent us from recovering all the people kidnapped nor from “bringing down the Hamas regime of terror,” assures Israel Katz.