“O Simultaneous request for arrest warrants against the leaders of Hamas, on the one hand, and against the two Israeli leaders, on the other, gave the false impression of equivalence” between these responsible, said the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) in a statement, whilst stressing respecting the “independence” of the ICC.
Berlin added that the Hague court “will have to evaluate very different facts”, following the prosecutor’s request.
“Hamas leaders are responsible for a barbaric massacre during which, on October 7th, men, women and children were brutally murdered, raped and kidnapped in Israel. Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages in unspeakable conditions, attacking Israel with ‘rockets’ and using the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a human shield”, argued German diplomats.
In view of this, “the Israeli Government has the right and duty to protect and defend its population against such acts”, maintained the German MNE, adding that in this case, “international humanitarian law and all its obligations must apply” .
In the eighth month of war in the Gaza Strip, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan today requested arrest warrants for the head of the Israeli executive, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes, such as “deliberately starving civilians”, “intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder”.
The accusations against Hamas leaders, including its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinuar, include “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “hostage-taking as a war crime”.
It will now be up to the ICC judges to analyze this request to issue arrest warrants for Karim Khan.
“The court will have to answer a series of difficult questions, including the question of its jurisdiction and the complementarity of investigations by the States of law in question, such as Israel”, argued Berlin, since Israel is not a State party to the ICC.
On October 7 last year, Israel declared a war in the Gaza Strip to “eradicate” Hamas after it, hours earlier, carried out an attack of unprecedented proportions on Israeli territory, killing more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) — in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel — also took 252 hostages, 124 of whom remain in captivity and 37 have died in the meantime, according to the latest assessment of the Israeli Army.
The war, which today entered its 227th day and continues to threaten to spread throughout the entire Middle East region, has so far left more than 35,500 people dead in the Gaza Strip, almost 80,000 injured and around 10,000 missing, presumably buried in the rubble. mostly civilians, according to updated figures from local authorities.
The conflict has also caused nearly two million people to be displaced, plunging the overpopulated and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a “situation of catastrophic hunger” that is claiming victims – “the highest number ever recorded” by the UN in studies on food security in the world.
Read Also: Netanyahu accuses ICC of equating Hamas “monsters” with Israeli forces
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