US President Joe Biden has denounced the International Criminal Court’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, calling it “outrageous.”
In a statement, Biden asserted that there is no “equivalence” between Israel and Hamas, and that the United States will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” Biden said. “Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
The ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, had announced that his office had sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders in connection with alleged crimes during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent conflict with Gaza.
Khan stated that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are “criminally responsible” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” For Hamas, arrest warrants were requested for leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as Deif.
The US State Department also issued a statement condemning the ICC announcement, calling it “shameful.”
“The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists. We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” the statement said.
The State Department also emphasized that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter and that Israel has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel.
“The United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter,” the statement said. “The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.”
Biden’s condemnation of the ICC application and his reiteration of support for Israel come amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people and the displacement of thousands more. The conflict began on May 10, when Hamas fired rockets into Israel after weeks of tensions over restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza, and the conflict has escalated since then.
