GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Government Media Office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip has welcomed the decision taken by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his war minister Yoav Gallant over their responsibility for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
“We see the issuance of these warrants a legal step in the right direction, albeit belated,” GMO head Salama Maarouf said in a statement on Monday.
Maarouf said that such a step came after the ICC received numerous demands, appeals and abundant evidence about the crimes that had been committed since October 7, 2023 by the Israeli occupation army under direct instructions from Israel’s upper political echelons.
Maarouf stressed the need for completing this step by issuing arrest warrants and summonses, in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, against all the Israeli political and military officials who gave orders to commit war crimes, as well as against the soldiers who committed war crimes.
Maarouf, however, denounced the ICC prosecutor for “issuing similar warrants against Palestinian leaders and equating the victim with the executioner.”
The GMO head explained that the ICC did not clarify the legal basis of its decision against Palestinian resistance leaders and only relied on allegations made and promoted by the Israeli occupation state as part of its propaganda about the October 7 events, although most of those claims were proven to be lies and fabrications.
He added that the ICC chief violated the rules of legal investigation and verification and overstepped the UN charters and resolutions that gave the Palestinian people and all people under occupation the right to resist the entity occupying their lands with all means, including armed resistance.
He called on the ICC chief to retract his decision against Palestinian resistance leaders and cancel the arrest warrants he issued against them.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that his office had applied for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for war crimes committed in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7 operation in southern Israel.
Khan announced his office had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Yoav Gallant bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Khan also applied for similar arrest warrants for three resistance leaders from the Hamas Movement – Yehya Sinwar, Ismail Haneyya, and Mohamed al-Masri (also known as Deif).
