Ottawa:

After the United Kingdom, Canada said it would “abide” by the arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court (ICC). “We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. 

“This is just who we are as Canadians,” he added. 

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli premier and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday for “crimes against humanity” committed since the Israel-Hamas war began more than a year ago, triggered by the militant Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack.

A warrant was also issued for Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.

Earlier on Friday, the British government indicated that Netanyahu could be arrested on the ICC arrest warrant if he travelled to the UK.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “The UK will always comply with its legal obligations as set out by domestic law and indeed international law.”

However, he refused to be drawn specifically on whether UK police would detain Netanyahu, telling reporters he would not “get into hypotheticals in relation to individual cases”.

Both the UK and Canada are part of the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance also composed of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Other countries that agreed to follow through with the ICC’s decision include– Belgium, the European Union, France, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Switzerland, and Turkey among others.

Other key Five Eyes member US has, however, called the move ‘outrageous’. “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” the statement added. 

However, the warrant was supported by US Senator Bernie Sanders, who took to X and said: “All launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians and caused unimaginable human suffering”.

“If the world does not uphold international law, we will descend into further barbarism,” he added.

Other countries to declare ‘disagreement’ with ICC decisions include– Argentina, Austria, and Hungary, among others. 

Jerusalem:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court over his conduct of the Gaza war would not stop him defending Israel.

“No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us — and it will not prevent me — from continuing to defend our country in every way,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We will not yield to pressure,” he vowed.

The premier is accused alongside his former defence minister Yoav Gallant of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

He described Thursday’s decision as a “dark day in the history of nations”.

“The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was established to protect humanity, has today become the enemy of humanity,” he said, adding that the accusations were “utterly baseless”.

Israel has been fighting in Gaza since October 2023, when a cross-border attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Its retaliatory campaign has led to the deaths of 44,056 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

UN agencies have warned of a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including possible famine, due to a lack of food and medicines.

The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

Netanyahu said the court was accusing Israel of “fictitious crimes”, while ignoring “the real war crimes, horrific war crimes being committed against us and against many others around the world”.

In addition to Netanyahu and Gallant, the court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel said was killed in an air strike last July.

Hamas has never confirmed his death.

Netanyahu mocked the court’s decision to issue a warrant for “the body of Mohammed Deif.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)