Israeli politicians and members of the government slammed the decision on Thursday (November 21) by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, Reuters reports.
In their decision to grant the warrants, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians.
Israel's far-right politician and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir referred to the court as "anti-Semitic" in a post on X platform.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennet posted on X saying the decision is a "shame on ICC."
Benny Gantz, who joined the war cabinet after the October 7 Hamas attack wrote on X that the decision was a "moral blindness and shameful stain of historic proportions."
Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid also condemned the decision in a post on X.
Netanyahu's office released a statement saying the ICC ruling was "anti-semitic" and the prime minister would "not yield to pressure" until all Israel's war objectives were achieved.
The EU's outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is "not a political decision" and called for the court's decision to be "respected and implemented".
Borell was speaking at a press conference alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi shortly after collecting an honorary degree from the University of Jordan.
In his statement, Borrell described the situation in Gaza as "a man-made tragedy" and warned that humanitarian operations were expected to stop imminently as "there is no more food and there is no more fuel".
"In the name of humanity -- in the name of humanity -- in the name of behaving, believing that every human being deserves dignity, this massacre has to stop", Borrell said.
