It was no surprise that Binyamin Netanyahu reacted with fury to the news that he and his defence minister might face arrest warrants for war crimes in Gaza. Israel’s besieged prime minister accused the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), an intergovernmental organisation based in The Hague, of “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging around the world”.
Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, in which 1,200 people were slaughtered and about 250 taken hostage, Israel has killed about 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Hamas officials, although these figures are now disputed. It has made terrible mistakes in its invasion. It may well yet make more as its assault on the southern city of Rafah grinds on. But the ICC prosecutor’s request for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and three Hamas bosses is highly unhelpful.
• Israeli tanks enter central Rafah after tent camp strike
Karim Khan tells The Sunday Times today that the law cannot be applied selectively and that no commander should be able to act with impunity. Yet the implied equivalence between Israel’s elected leaders and the Hamas terrorists who last year ordered the bloody attacks on its civilians is grotesque. The ICC’s intervention comes before the conflict has even ended. It will do nothing to help bring about a ceasefire and the freeing of the remaining Israeli hostages — not that helping is its legal remit. The US, which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute under which the ICC was established in 2002, has criticised the request for warrants, as has the UK.
The events that have unfolded since October are a tragedy for all involved. But the ICC’s attempt to insert itself into the situation in such an incendiary way, at such a febrile time, is unwarranted.
