Possibility of ICC Arrest Warrants against Israeli Officials Worries Tel Aviv

Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Galant and army chief of Staff Herzi Halevi are among the regime officials against whom arrest warrants may be issued “in the coming days”.

According to Israel’s Channel 13, Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi chaired the meeting, in which arrest warrants for other officials were also discussed. They decided to take a series of measures, including launching a diplomatic pressure campaign and activating Israel’s international tools to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing arrest warrants.

The “immediate measures” approved by the NSC include phone calls between Netanyahu and his counterparts around the world, putting pressure on the US administration and involving the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Herzog, in these efforts.

“Based on the information and indicators available to senior officials in Israel, there is a possibility that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevi,” the report said.

According to Channel 13, Israeli officials predict that “the potential arrest warrants, if issued, are expected to target policy makers at the military and political levels (referring to high-ranking officials), and not junior officers.”

Channel 13 reported that Israel has already begun “immediate measures” that it decided to take in an attempt to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu held telephone conversations with his counterparts in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Austria, urging them to exert political pressure on the court in favor of Tel Aviv.

The minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, and the Israeli ambassador to Washington also held talks with officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration and members of Congress. In addition to this, the channel noted that there has been “enormous pressure on the American administration to intervene on behalf of Israel” in this issue.

The Israeli regime has pounded the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 last year.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,980 injured since then, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.