Biden calls ICC prosecutor’s request for Netanyahu arrest ‘outrageous’ as Israeli PM says he is ‘disgusted’ – live | Israel-Gaza war

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has also come out against international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas officials.

“The ICC has no authority over Israel or the United States, and today’s baseless and illegitimate decision should face global condemnation. International bureaucrats cannot be allowed to use lawfare to usurp the authority of democratic nations that maintain the rule of law,” the speaker said in a statement.

Johnson is one of Joe Biden’s top antagonists, and blamed the US president’s policies for leading to the warrants, while also warning that the GOP may move to retaliate against the court. Here’s more:

Israel is fighting a just war for survival, and the ICC is attempting to equate Israeli officials to the evil terrorists who perpetrated the October 7 massacre. It’s clear the ICC’s decision has been advanced due to the Biden Administration’s pressure campaign against Israel and its outlandish State Department investigations. In the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress is reviewing all options, including sanctions, to punish the ICC and ensure its leadership faces consequences if they proceed. If the ICC is allowed to threaten Israeli leaders, ours could be next.

Joanna Walters

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, issued a statement not long after Joe Biden’s, calling the ICC chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “shameful”.

In a statement from the state department, Blinken said:

The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists.

We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.

Moreover, the United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.

The full statement is here.

Trump foreign policy advisers met with Netanyahu today – sources

Joanna Walters

Three former US foreign policy officials in Donald Trump’s administration met with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other public figures in Israel on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, Reuters reports, citing its work as an exclusive report.

The news agency continues: the delegation was comprised of Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser, as well as the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates John Rakolta and the former ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen, said the person, who requested anonymity as the trip’s itinerary was not public.

In addition to Netanyahu, the delegation met the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, and several other Israeli officials, the person said.

Among the main goals of the trip was to obtain a better understanding of Israel’s complex domestic political situation, said the person familiar with the visit.

It was a rare case of Trump allies traveling abroad as part of an organized delegation to meet foreign officials.

The source said the group was not acting at the former president’s request and had no message to deliver to Israeli officials. But all serve as informal advisers to Trump, and the former president will likely receive a readout of the meetings, the person added.

Joanna Walters

South Africa’s presidency has said it welcomed an announcement by the international criminal court’s prosecutor saying he had requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes, Reuters reports.

The Guardian will bring you more details on this asap but a reminder that it was South Africa that, last December, launched a case against Israel at the United Nations’ international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. The ICJ is separate from the ICC. The ICJ is the UN’s top court that prosecutes and tries individuals on war crimes charges. The ICC is an intergovernmental court of justice that considers the legal responsibility of nations.

Last week, South Africa asked the ICJ to order Israel to end its assault on Rafah, halt its military campaign across Gaza, and allow international investigators and journalists into the territory.

Netanyahu condemns ICC prosecutor’s request for warrant to arrest him

Joanna Walters

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reacted angrily to the news that the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is seeking arrest warrants for him and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, with Khan revealing in the same breath that he was seeking the same for the leaders of Hamas.

Netanyahu said on Monday that Khan’s move was absurd and was meant to target all of Israel.

I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.

With what audacity do you compare Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, decapitated, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters and the IDF soldiers fighting a just war?” he said in a statement, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu also said that the revelation “is exactly what the ‘new antisemitism’ looks like”.

He vowed that Israel was sticking with its stated goal of Israel’s military counteroffensive launched after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year and reiterated that Israel “will bring down Hamas and achieve total victory” against the group that controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Netanyahu had said last December that even to subject Israel to any war crimes investigation amounted to “pure antisemitism”.

International criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan has caused a political earthquake by requesting arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar. Israel’s government has denounced the request, calling it “scandalous” as has US president Joe Biden, who called Khan’s decision “outrageous” and said it creates a false equivalence between the two warring parties. It will now be up to the ICC’s judges to determine whether to issue the warrants.

Here’s a rundown of what else has happened today so far:

• The UK Foreign Office also objected to Khan’s request, saying it would not help the process of negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza.

• US senator Lindsey Graham said he feels deceived by ICC staff, and accused Khan of rushing the decision to seek arrest warrants.

• Khan thanked international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who he said acted as a special adviser in his investigation.

Joe Biden has objected to the international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials as “outrageous”.

“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” the US president said in a statement.

Hamas rejects ICC prosecutor’s call for arrest warrants against leaders

Martin Belam

In a statement, Hamas denounced the request by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor for arrest warrants for three of its senior leaders, and called for them to be cancelled.

Reuters reports that the organisation said: “Hamas strongly denounces the attempts of the prosecutor of the international criminal court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders. Hamas … demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance, for violating UN conventions and resolutions.”

UK objects to ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against Israel and Hamas leaders

Patrick Wintour

The UK said it was opposed to international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

In a statement, the foreign office said: “We do not believe that seeking warrants will help get hostages out, get aid in, or deliver a sustainable ceasefire. This remains the UK’s priority.”

The statement added that “as we have said from the outset, we do not think the ICC has jurisdiction in this case. The UK has not yet recognized Palestine as a state, and Israel is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. It would be premature to respond further before the Pre-Trial Chamber has considered the Prosecutor’s application for warrants.”