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.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
| Photo Credit: AP

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister is “unacceptable” and could not be enforced in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Chief of Staff said on Thursday.

Gergely Gulyas told a news briefing that, although Hungary ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it “was never made part of Hungarian law,” meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes. Representatives of both sides slammed Khan’s decision.

“This decision… is not a legal but a political decision, it is unacceptable and it discredits the International Criminal Court,” Mr. Gulyas said.

“It is wrong to use a court as a political tool, and it should not be forgotten what led to what is happening in Gaza, and that is a ruthless, dishonest and vile terrorist attack on Israel,” he said.

All 27 European Union countries are ICC members and EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell noted that they “are bound to execute the court’s decisions”. However, Khan’s move has exposed political differences between European powers over the conflict.

Mr. Orban is a long-time ally of Mr. Netanyahu and has said that Israel has a right to defend itself.

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing over 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry says.