Israel will appeal the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
Netanyahu made the decision at the last minute, as Israel had to respond to the court by midnight on Wednesday regarding appealing the arrest warrants, a Ynet report noted.
Last Thursday, the ICC cited grounds to believe that the two accused committed the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare as well as crimes against humanity such as murder and persecution. At the beginning of the war, shortly after Hamas's invasion, the IDF’s humanitarian efforts were initially delayed by several days of fighting in order to expel the invasion carried out by the terrorist organization.
Unable to travel
The ICC's decision also implies that Netanyahu and Gallant will be unable to travel to countries that are a part of the court's 120-plus member states, which includes most of Europe. They will still be able to travel to the US, which is not a member, and to some other Middle Eastern countries.
Israel and the United States condemned the ICC ruling.
Later on Saturday, the court said that they "step in only when national courts fail to handle cases properly," with their spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah saying, "If there are no genuine investigations or prosecutions, then the court has to investigate and prosecute where the legal conditions are met.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob, Eve Young, Joanie Margulies, and Keshet Neev contributed to this report.