Iran: ICC indictment of Netanyahu should have included 'genocide'

Iran said the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s indictment of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant should have also included "genocide" by the regime.

News ID: 5463

Date: 23 November 2024 - 12:40

TABNAK, Nov, 23 : The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I on Thursday issued warrants of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024".

"Fourteen long months into the occupying regime's genocidal campaign in #Gaza, marked by the most harrowing atrocities, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I finally issued arrest warrants for the two top criminals #Netanyahu and #Gallant," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote on X.

"Of course, their indictment should have included '#genocide' which is manifest," he added.

Baghaei said, "We welcome any step to serve justice and end Israeli regime's impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in occupied Palestine and elsewhere."

"Chronic procrastination in holding Israel accountable - mainly due to U.S.'s covert/overt obstructions and bullying- has allowed atrocity crimes to persist in occupied Palestine."

Baghaei said a "full and immediate implementation of this arrest warrants will test the effectiveness of the international criminal justice", warning against any procrastination.

"Hope this late decision would not be manipulated through abuse of process," he wrote.

The judges said Thursday there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival”.

The court also said the men bore “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the bloody onslaught on Gaza.

Backed by the United States and its Western allies, Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the Israeli regime in response to the occupying entity’s intensified violence against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed 44,056 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,268 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

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