TEL AVIV, May 20. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his Likud party at the parliament that the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request that arrest warrants be issued against him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was scandalous and will not stop any combat in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ynet portal.

"This will not stop me or us," Netanyahu said.

Earlier, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said he had appealed to the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant. The document said that based on the evidence gathered, the prosecution has reasonable grounds to believe that both "bear criminal responsibility for the <…> war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza Strip) from at least October 8, 2023."

The ICC Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation in the Palestinian territories in 2021. At the time, it was stated that the prosecution investigated possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces, as well as by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. According to Khan, alleged crimes committed during the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began on October 8, 2023, also fall within the mandate of the Prosecutor's Office.