“Attempts to deny Israel its right to achieve its goals in its just war will fail,” declared the former defense minister.
By JNS
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant slammed the International Criminal Court’s decision to greenlight arrest warrants against him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, accusing the tribunal in The Hague of encouraging terrorism and murder.
The decision of the court in The Hague will be remembered forever,” said Gallant, who now serves as a lawmaker for Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party after being dismissed as defense minister on Nov. 5.
“It places the State of Israel and the murderous leaders of Hamas in the same row and thus legitimizes the murder of babies, the rape of women and the abduction of the elderly from their beds,” Gallant wrote on X.
Gallant added, “Attempts to deny Israel its right to achieve its goals in its just war will fail—IDF soldiers and the security forces will continue their operations until the hostages are returned, Hamas is dismantled and the [displaced]Israeli civilians are returned to their homes in safety.”
The former Israeli defense minister concluded his statement by saying he was “proud that I had the privilege to lead the security establishment in the difficult war that was imposed on us.”
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I on Thursday afternoon “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest,” it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the court ordered the arrest of Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of Hamas’s “military wing,” who according to the Israel Defense Forces was killed in a July airstrike.
Regarding Deif, the court said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that senior leaders of Hamas, comprising at least Mr. Deif, Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar, and Mr. [Ismail] Haniyeh, agreed to jointly carry out the 7 October 2023 Operation.”
Khan had requested warrants against former Hamas political leader Haniyeh and Hamas terrorist chief Sinwar, but dropped the legal proceedings after their deaths on July 31 and Oct. 16, respectively.
Roughly 1,200 civilians were murdered by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken into the Gaza Strip.
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state is recognized under international law.
The 123 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute are obligated to act on any arrest warrant it issues, raising the possibility that Netanyahu and Gallant could be placed under arrest while visiting these places.
Netanyahu earlier on Thursday slammed the ICC proceedings against him and Gallant as a “modern Dreyfus trial,” denouncing the Hague court in a statement as “a biased and discriminatory political body.”