Netanyahu's office accused the ICC of isolating Israel and "facilitating terrorist attacks"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Nov. 21 accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of isolating the country and "facilitating terrorist acts" against the Jewish state.

Dmitry Gendelman, counsel for the office, wrote on Telegram that the issuance of arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Ministry head Yoav Galant puts the ICC "on the side of a regional war against Israel."

"The ICC has decided to support a campaign of total disinformation with anti-Semitic overtones, which aims to isolate Israel from its allies and promote terrorist attacks against our country," he concluded.

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The ICC announcedthe issuance of the arrest warrants earlier on Thursday. The court said the decision was made in connection with "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between at least October 8, 2023 and May 20, 2024."

Exactly a year ago, Israel had already refused to cooperate with the ICC 's investigation into the situation in Palestine. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Ben-Dor emphasized that Tel Aviv lacked confidence in the activities of the court's investigative commission.

Before this, on November 14, 2023, lawyer Burak Bekiroğlu said that Turkey had prepared a lawsuit to the ICC against Netanyahu, accusing him of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Turkey believes that any international outcry or pressure from the court will slow down the violence against infants, women, children and all civilians subjected to genocide.

Last December, South Africa asked the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule that Israel had violated its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention with its actions in the Gaza Strip. According to the African country, Israel's steps are in the nature of genocide as they are carried out to "destroy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group."

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when Hamas launched a massive barrage of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, as well as invading border areas in the south and taking hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians seek to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to establish its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses to accept the conditions.