Outgoing US President Joe Biden criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants on Thursday for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Biden called the decision “outrageous” and reiterated in a statement, “Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.” He emphasized that the United States will “always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
The ICC announced that it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of war crimes in Palestinian territories, including Gaza. The court stated it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe they were criminally responsible for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare” and “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
These warrants come as Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, now in its second year, has resulted in the deaths of around 44,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, and over 103,000 injuries.
