G7 to discuss ICC warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant

By Baris Seckin

ROME (AA) – Italy announced on Friday that the G7 countries will discuss the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Foreign Ministers' meeting on Nov. 25.

"We respect and support the International Criminal Court, but we believe that its role should be legal rather than political," Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters at an event in Turin, northern Italy.

“We will review the documents to understand the reasons for the court's decision,” he added.

Tajani was commenting on the ICC's arrest warrants and the upcoming G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting, which Italy will host next week. The foreign ministers of the G7 nations, which include the US, Germany, France, Canada, UK, Italy, and Japan, will be held in the towns of Anagni and Fiuggi on Nov. 25-26, he added.

"The G7 Foreign Ministers will begin discussions in Fiuggi on Monday, and we will make decisions with our allies. This is the policy that our Prime Minister (Giorgia Meloni) has outlined, and I am tasked with carrying it out," he said.

On Thursday, the Hague-based court announced the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant earlier in the day "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024," when ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought the warrants.

In doing so, it also unanimously rejected Israel's challenges to jurisdiction under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute.

The court said it "found reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant "bear criminal responsibility" for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."

The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in the Gaza Strip recently entered its second year, having already killed 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation. ​​​​​​​