ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant not 'political' decisions, must be 'respected': EU foreign policy chief

By Nur Asena Erturk

The International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are not "political" decisions and must be "respected," the EU’s foreign policy chief said Thursday.

In a landmark move, the court in the Hague announced earlier it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over war crimes it accuses them of carrying out in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

"It is not a political decision ... and the decision of the court has to be respected and implemented," Josep Borrell told a joint news conference with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman.

Borrell stressed that the decision was "binding," and that all parties of the court, "which include all members of the European Union," must implement the decision.

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."​​​​​​​

It also believes that both “bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed some 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.