Biden slams ICC over ‘outrageous’ Netanyahu arrest warrant before warning court against comparing Israel to Hamas

US President Joe Biden has said the ICC arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu is “outrageous”.

This comes after judges at the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

They also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif – whom Israel claims was killed in an airstrike on July 13 2024.

Judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect that the officials bore “criminal responsibility” for crimes during the Israel-Hamas war.

In a statement released yesterday by the White House, President Biden said: “The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous.

“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.”

European officials from Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands have released statements standing by the ICC’s decision.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the UK Government respected the independence of the court, however also noted that Israel has a right to defend itself in accordance with international law.

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“There is no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy, and Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, which are terrorist organisations. We remain focused on pushing for an immediate ceasefire,” said the spokesman.

When asked if the Israeli Prime Minister would be arrested if he came to the UK, the spokesman said: “We are not going to get into hypotheticals.”

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief said: “The decision of the court has to be respected and implemented.”

South Africa, the country which brought a case against Israel accusing it of genocide, also applauded the court’s decision.

Meanwhile, allies of Israel have rejected the court’s move.

In a statement on X, Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala wrote: “The ICC’s unfortunate ruling undermines authority in other cases by equating the elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organisation.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the ICC’s ruling would have no effect in Hungary, inviting Netanyahu to visit his country.

In a statement yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu branded the court’s decision as “antisemitic,” and said claims of Israel deliberately starving Palestinians were absurd.

“We have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. We issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way – while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields,” said the PM.

Netanyahu said Israel would “not recognise the validity” of the ICC’s decision.