Israeli authorities fear that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will issue arrest warrants this week against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Army, reports the newspaper Haaretz this Monday. .
According to the Israeli newspaper, both the Ministry of Justice and Army lawyers are trying to prevent this from happening and, also, Netanyahu, the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dremes, and countries friendly to Israel, as well as the United States, are trying to convince the ICC Attorney General, Karim Khan, to delay or even prevent the issuance of the warrants.
Israeli government sources, whom Haaretz does not identify, believe that arrest warrants could be served on Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevi one day this week.
Israel, like other countries such as the United States, Russia or Iran, do not recognize the authority of the ICC, but the 123 countries that do recognize it would be obliged to arrest those targeted and hand them over to the court in The Hague.
According to former Israeli Deputy Attorney General Roy Schondorf, cited by Haaretz, issuing arrest warrants could lead to measures against Israel, such as an arms embargo or economic sanctions.
The newspaper highlights some of the statements that several of the country’s highest officials made over the course of 206 days, such as Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who demanded a cut in supplies to the Gaza Strip, arguing that “that’s what the killers of children deserve”.
In the 206 days of war, the Israeli army killed more than 34,400 Palestinians and brought Gaza into a catastrophic situation, destroying all types of civil infrastructure and basic services.
The Palestinian group Hamas is currently studying the latest truce proposal put on the table by Israel for an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel warned that this is the last attempt to reach an agreement before a ground invasion of Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are gathered.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned on numerous occasions that any military offensive planned by Israel against the densely populated province of Rafah in the Gaza Strip could constitute “war crimes
