Biden calls ICC prosecutor’s request for Netanyahu arrest ‘outrageous’ as Israeli PM says he is ‘disgusted’ – live | US immigration

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 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.”

House Republicans weigh legislative response to ICC prosecutor’s arrest warrant bid

Lauren Gambino

The Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives are reportedly weighing a legislative response to the decision by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Punchbowl News has reported that House Republican leadership, which is very supportive of the Israeli government and its war in Gaza, are considering a response, but what the measure looks like and whether they can pull it off before the upcoming Memorial Day holiday remains unclear.

The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to respond to the news in a statement on Monday, per CNN. His office has not replied to a request for comment.

Last week, the House passed a Republican-led bill to force Joe Biden to send arms shipments to Israel. The measure came in response to the decision by the US president to pause a transfer of bombs as a warning to Israel that his administration would not supply the country with weapons that could be used to further an invasion of Rafah. Millions of Palestinian civilians displaced by Israel’s bombardment of the territory have sought shelter in the southern Gaza city.

House Republicans are attempting to use unrest on college campuses over the war as a political cudgel, introducing legislation that is likely to further divide Democrats even if it stands no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed into law by Biden.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ICC warrants. But the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, previously said in April the president does “not support it”.

“We’ve been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it,” she said. “We don’t believe that they have the jurisdiction. And I’m just going to leave it there for now.”

Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, signaled wariness with the international criminal court (ICC) chief prosecutor’s decision to request arrest warrants for both the leaders of Hamas and of Israel.

Austria is a signatory of the Rome statute, which created the ICC. Here’s his full statement, on X:

The Republican US senator Lindsey Graham accused the international criminal court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, of misleading him about how it would handle its investigation into Israel’s leaders.

In a lengthy post on X, Graham condemned Khan’s request for warrants, and said he had been told by Khan’s staff that they would consult with Israeli authorities before issuing warrants. Here’s more from Graham, who represents South Carolina in the Democratic-controlled Senate:

Israeli ministers condemn ICC arrest warrant call as ‘scandalous’ and ‘tantamount to attack on 7 October victims’

Martin Belam

Senior figures in the Israeli government have reacted angrily to the announcement that the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said the move was “scandalous” and tantamount to attacking the victims of 7 October. Reuters reports he said he had opened a special war room to counteract the ICC’s move, adding no force in the world would prevent Israel from bringing back its hostages from Gaza and toppling Hamas.

The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the decision would be “the last nail in the dismantling of this political and antisemitic court”, adding that “arrest warrants [for Netanyahu and Gallant] are the arrest warrants for all of us”.

The war cabinet member Benny Gantz, who has recently threatened to pull his party from Israel’s coalition government said: “Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy.”

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.

The Hamas-led health authority in Gaza has said the death toll from Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip is more than 35,500 Palestinians, while Israel says it has lost 282 soldiers since ground operations began. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Aid agencies have widely reported food shortages in the territory, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Israel’s aerial bombardment, being forced to live in makeshift tent shelters with poor sanitation conditions.

The move has also been condemned by the senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who said the decision “equates the victim with the executioner” and encourages Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza. Wasel Abu Youssef of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said there was confusion over who was the victim, and that “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves. The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who are pursuing crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas leaders and officials Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were named as being wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are believed to be still holding about 129 hostages of the approximately 250 seized and abducted during the 7 October surprise attack inside southern Israel. Israeli authorities put the death toll caused by the 7 October attack at about 1,140.

Joe Biden has been a steadfast, if increasingly reluctant, supporter of Israel following Hamas’s 7 October attack, even as the country sees its international standing erode amid concerns about its ongoing invasion of Gaza.

That relationship may grow even more complex now that the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has issued arrest warrants for top officials from Hamas and is also seeking warrants for some of Israel’s leaders, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. From the Guardian’s Bethan McKernan, here’s more on what Khan alleged as he called for the warring parties’ leaders to be brought to the Hague for trial:

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, a move that puts the post-second world war rules-based order to the test and presents new challenges for Israel’s western allies.

Karim Khan said his office had applied to the world court’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for the military and political leaders on both sides for crimes committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.

He named Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, considered to be the masterminds of the 7 October assault, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, who is based in Qatar, as wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.

“The world was shocked on 7 October when people were ripped from their homes, from their bedrooms in different kibbutzim … people have suffered enormously,” Khan told CNN on Monday. “We have a variety of evidence to support the applications we’ve submitted to the judges.”

“These acts demand accountability,” Khan’s office said in a statement.

The House Republican leadership, including the speaker, Mike Johnson, was quick to repudiate the Senate’s plan to put the bipartisan Border Act up for consideration, while demanding Democrats hold a vote on their own bill to reinstate hardline immigration policies first enacted under Donald Trump.

“For more than three years now, congressional Democrats have stood by while the Biden administration has opened our borders to criminal drug cartels, terrorists, and untold millions of illegal immigrants. Now, Leader Schumer is trying give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which has already failed once in the Senate because it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place. Should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival,” Johnson wrote in a joint statement with the majority leader, Steve Scalise, the majority whip, Tom Emmer, and the conference chair, Elise Stefanik.

The leaders said the Senate should instead hold a vote on HR 2, the House Republican proposal that would restart construction of a wall along the southern border, and force asylum seekers to remain in that country while their claims are processed. Most Democrats are against those policies.

In a letter to lawmakers, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, appealed to Republicans to reconsider their opposition to the bipartisan Border Act as he moves towards holding a vote on the stalled immigration reform legislation this week.

He also acknowledged that the bill, which is intended to reduce migrant arrivals, may not win unanimous support from Democrats. Some advocates for migrants have decried the legislation as a hardline policy that would undercut the US’s humanitarian obligations.

“We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border,” Schumer said. “I will be honest: I do not expect all Democrats to support this legislation. Many of our colleagues do not support some of the provisions in this legislation, nor do I expect all Republicans to agree to every provision. But that is often how bipartisan legislation must be shaped when dealing with an issue as complex and politically charged as our nation’s immigration laws.”

He also attacked Donald Trump for publicly urging that the legislation be opposed earlier this year, when it was attached to a foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan’s militaries. That measure eventually passed as a standalone bill. Here’s what Schumer had to say:

Back in January, the former president urged congressional Republicans to kill the bipartisan bill, telling the world proudly to ‘blame it on me’. The American people do not have the luxury of playing partisan blame games. They want bipartisan action to secure our border.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Senate Democrats will try once again to pass a bill to tighten immigration policy, which Donald Trump and his Republican allies killed earlier this year.

It is likely to be a fruitless effort. While the legislation may get through Congress’s Democratic-led upper chamber, the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and his colleagues announced that the bill would be, once again, “dead on arrival” when it gets over to his side of the Capitol.

What’s the point of the legislative brouhaha that will surely unfold over the next few days? It is a sign of how worried Democrats are about appearing blasé about the large numbers of people entering the United States across its southern border, which polls show is a major worry of voters. The legislation – negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers – would tighten immigration policy in a way intended to keep migrants out. Even if it does not pass, the vote may be an opportunity for vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election in November – think Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, both red states – to show that they are ready to take action on the issue.

The White House this morning reiterated that it supported the legislation, and Joe Biden has gone as far as to urge Trump, whose meddling was seen as instrumental in the bill’s death earlier this year, to work with him on the issue. We’ll see if this renewed push goes any better for Senate Democrats than the last time they tried.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is expected to return to the witness stand for the final day of testimony in his business fraud trial. Follow our live blog for more.

• Julian Assange won a court ruling in the UK that will allow him to again appeal his extradition to the United States on espionage charges.

• The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor announced arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the leaders of Hamas. We have a live blog about that, too.