By Ahmet Gencturk
ATHENS (AA) – Lithuania said it will abide by the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu as well as a former Israeli defense minister and a senior Hamas leader, as reported by local media on Thursday.
“The Court’s decisions are binding on member states. Once the court issues an arrest warrant, its execution is binding in all state parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC or those states or territories that accept the ICC’s jurisdiction,” Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said in a commentary forwarded to the BNS news agency.
Lithuania has consistently supported and sustained the work of the ICC and respects its independence and impartiality, the ministry added.
It added: “Lithuania would also like to remind you that not all the masterminds and perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, have been punished, and that about 100 Israeli and other citizens are still being held hostage.”
Separately, Margus Tsahkna, foreign minister of the Baltic state of Estonia, said on X: “Estonia takes note of the arrest warrants of the ICC, which Estonia is a state party to. Upholding the international order based on international law and rules is important to us.”
He added: “At the same time, we are skeptical they'll contribute to a lasting peace in the Middle East.”
In a landmark move, the ICC on Thursday announced that it had issued arrest warrants for the two Israeli leaders over possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
It said it "found reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant – who served during Israel’s deadly Gaza offensive until early this month – "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 came as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having killed some 44,000 people and injured 103,000 others, leaving most of the territory devastated and uninhabitable, with food, medicine, and water all in short supply.