Israel faces deeper isolation after Netanyahu is targeted for arrest by ICC

WASHINGTON —  Deepening Israel’s international isolation in the starkest fashion since the start of the 13-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, the Hague-based International Criminal Court said Thursday that it had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recently dismissed defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over the conduct of the war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The warrants, for alleged criminal responsibility for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war, prompted fury in Israel, which like the United States does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. It also presented a dilemma for close U.S. allies in Europe, several of which declared that they would honor the warrants and the court’s jurisdiction.

The decision also underscores a growing rift between a traditionally U.S.-led Western order and the so-called Global South, which was far more welcoming of the court’s move.

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel “categorically rejects the absurd and false accusations” and called the court a “biased and discriminatory political body.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog, posting on X, called it a “dark day for justice.” Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, also denounced the court’s move, calling it a “reward for terrorism.”

Gallant, forced out of his post by Netanyahu earlier in November after repeatedly clashing with the prime minister over Gaza, did not specifically address the charges against him, but said in a statement that Israel had been fighting a war of self-defense.

The Biden administration has staunchly supported Israel since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel, which triggered the war. About 1,200 people were killed and some 250 taken hostage in the assault. Six months ago, when the court’s chief prosecutor said he had requested the warrants, the U.S. condemned the move.

The White House did so again Thursday, but in somewhat more muted fashion than it had in May, when the warrants were first requested by the prosecutor.

“The United States fundamentally rejects the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials,” the National Security Council said in a statement, citing the “rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision.”

The court’s action comes at a complicated moment for the Biden administration, less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Despite continuing efforts to broker a cease-fire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, chances appear dim for securing an accord before the handover to Trump.

In Congress, the ICC step drew denunciations from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s choice for national security advisor, declared on X that the court had “no credibility.” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) called it a “weaponization of international law at its most egregious.”

Back in May, the ICC’s chief prosecutor also sought arrest warrants for three senior figures from Hamas, all of whom are now confirmed or believed dead. In its announcement Thursday, the court said it issued a warrant anyway for one of them, military chieftain Mohammed Deif, saying it could not confirm Israel’s assertion that it had killed him in a July airstrike.

The other two, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar and the group’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, were both killed in the intervening months — Sinwar in an encounter with Israeli troops in southern Gaza in October and Haniyeh in a July strike in Iran’s capital, Tehran, which was widely attributed to Israel.

Hamas welcomed the issuance of the warrants against the Israeli officials, without mentioning the one against Deif. In a statement posted on its Telegram channel, the group called it an “important historical precedent” and called for more such warrants to be issued.

Palestinians welcomed the court’s move, but said it had taken too long and did not go far enough.

“This should have come sooner,” said Diana Buttu, a lawyer and former legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization. “Netanyahu is leading a government, so this makes the case for the ICC to place sanctions on Israel, and for companies to divest from Israel,” she said.

Until now, Russian President Vladimir Putin had been the only major world leader for whom the court had issued an arrest warrant. That occurred in May, for war crimes in connection with Russia’s nearly 3-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin at the time derided the court’s action.

While symbolic in some important respects — the court does not hold trials in absentia — the issuance of the arrest warrants does have one practical effect: the threat of arrest if Netanyahu or Gallant travels to any countries that accept the court’s jurisdiction, which includes most European states. It would not impede their ability to travel to the United States.

The decision by a panel of judges cited what it said were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant’s acts encompassed a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.” Israel has insisted throughout the war that the Gaza offensive, which has killed about 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, has been conducted in line with international law.

Palestinian casualty figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. But immense civilian suffering has prompted intense international criticism of Israel, pitting the Biden administration against European countries with whom it partners closely in other respects, including assisting Ukraine as it tries, with increasing difficulty, to fend off Russia’s invasion.

The Netherlands, where the court is based, was the first to announce it would abide by the arrest warrants. Other European nations swiftly joined in, including Ireland and France, which issued a statement supporting the ICC. The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told journalists in Jordan that the court’s decision “has to be respected and implemented.”

Times staff writers Nabih Bulos in Beirut and Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.