NEW YORK, May 21. /TASS/. A decision made by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan to seek an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was an attempt 'to demonize Israel,' Netanyahu told ABC television channel.
"He's saying we're starving people?" the Israeli prime minister said in an interview with the US-based television channel. "We have supplied half million tons of food and medicine with 20,000 trucks. This guy is out to demonize Israel."
On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested that Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying that the ICC has "reasonable grounds to believe" that they "bear criminal responsibility for 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.
ICC Prosecutor Khan also asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders. According to the ICC statement, the Prosecutor's Office has "reasonable grounds to believe" that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, commander of the movement's military wing, and Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh "bear criminal responsibility for <…> war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine from at least October 7, 2023."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly.
Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, up to 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 77,600 injured since tensions escalated on October 7, 2023.