Yoav Gallant calls ICC parallel between Israel and Hamas 'despicable'

Tel Aviv: Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday said that it was "despicable" that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had drawn a parallel between the Israeli leadership and Hamas in filing war crimes charges against both.

On Monday, ICC Chief ProsecutorKarim Khan said he is seeking arrest warrants for Gallant, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top leaders of Hamas, including Yehya al-Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by them.

"The parallel he [Khan] has drawn between the Hamas and the State of Israel is despicable," Gallant said in a statement released by his office.

Other Hamas leaders named by Khan include Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the head of the group's military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, who sits atop Hamas' political wing and is seen as the group's overall leader.

US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticised Khan's actions. Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the treaty that established the ICC.

Netanyahu, in a video released in English on Monday evening, said Khan "takes his place among the great anti-Semites in modern times." He also accused Khan of "blood libel" - a term that refers to anti-Semitic false accusations against Jews since the Middle Ages.

He said the ICC chief prosecutor "now stands alongside those infamous German judges who donned their robes and upheld laws that denied the Jewish people their most basic rights and enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history."

He said no amount of pressure and no decision would prevent Israel from defending itself against those who want to destroy it.

"Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were totally defenceless against our enemies. Those days are over. Now the Jewish people have a state, and we have an army to defend our state."

The US is questioning the "legitimacy and credibility" of the ICC's investigation, noting that the court cancelled a planned fact-finding visit to Israel.

US Secretary of State Blinken, in a statement released on Monday, noted that Khan cancelled a planned visit to Israel shortly before seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

Blinken noted that Khan was scheduled to visit Israel "as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli government." Khan's staff were due in Israel on Monday, he added.

Israel was then told that the staff did not board the flight at about the same time that Khan went on camera in The Hague on Monday to announce the charges, the statement said.

"These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation," Blinken said. He called the process "deeply troubling."

Gallant said the Israeli army's operations are in accordance with international law "while taking unprecedented measures to facilitate humanitarian aid."

Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the Gaza Strip during the Hamas attacks in the Israeli border area on October 7.

The terrorist attack was the trigger for Israel's military offensive in Gaza.