The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza stem from anti-Israel bias, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday.

Netanyahu’s office called the warrants “a modern Dreyfus trial that will end in the same way. Israel vigorously rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the ICC, which is a biased and discriminatory political body.” 

The International Criminal Court’s pre-trial chamber issued the arrest warrants earlier Thursday for the arrests of Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes related to the war in Gaza.

Under their terms of the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant risk arrest if they travel to any of the 124 countries that are members of the court. 

“No anti-Israel decision will stop Israel from defending its citizens,” Netanyahu’s spokesperson said.

The prime minister’s spokesperson also accused Khan, who has been accused by a former colleague of sexual misconduct, of trying to distract from the allegations. 

Gallant said that the decision to issue warrants is “outrageous” and “will live in infamy,” saying that it equates Israel and Hamas, and legitimizes terrorism.

“It also sets a dangerous precedent for democracies around the world in their fight against terrorism,” Gallant wrote in a post on X. 

The former defense minister said that Israel will not be deterred from defending itself and fighting the war in Gaza and Lebanon.

“I am proud of the extraordinary privilege I had in leading Israel’s defense establishment during our hardest hour – fighting a war on seven fronts,” Gallant wrote. “I stand by our troops who will continue to operate at the highest professional and moral levels while defending the State of Israel.”

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid condemned the issuance of the warrants, saying that “Israel is defending itself against terrorist organizations that attacked, murdered and raped our citizens. These warrants are a prize for terrorism.”

While the court is keeping the full warrants confidential, a statement from the ICC pretrial chamber says that it “found reasonable grounds to believe” that from Oct. 8, 2023 until May 20, 2024, at least, Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” as well as “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

Among the accusations the chamber made was that “only minimal humanitarian assistance was authorized,” and that increases in humanitarian aid “were not made to fulfill Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law,” but rather, “they were a response to the pressure of the international community or requests by the [U.S.].” 

The ICC pretrial chamber also claimed that Israel prevented anesthetics from being brought into Gaza, forcing doctors to use “inadequate and unsafe means to sedate patients, causing these persons extreme pain and suffering,” which the chamber viewed as a crime against humanity.

The chamber also claimed that it has material showing that there were two incidents of attacks intentionally directed against civilians, without providing details. 

The chamber rejected Israel’s petition against the warrants, which argued that the ICC does not have jurisdiction because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute establishing the court. The pretrial chamber ruled that “the court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of territorial jurisdiction of Palestine,” which it recognizes as a state and considers to include Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, first applied for the warrants in May, six years after a request from the Palestinians to investigate Israel. In November 2023, after Hamas’ massive Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel and the ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza, South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti submitted referrals against Israel to the ICC prosecutor. Two months later, Chile and Mexico submitted their own referrals against Israel.

Sources close to Netanyahu have said that the issuance of the warrants during President Joe Biden’s final months in office has been a chief concern for the prime minister. Soon after Khan asked for the warrants, the House passed legislation sanctioning him and other ICC employees. That legislation, which the Biden administration opposes, has been held up in the Senate since June. The U.S. is one of several dozen countries, including India, China and Russia, that are not parties to the ICC.

The pretrial chamber also issued an arrest warrant against senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, after dropping the warrants against Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, who have since been confirmed to be killed. While there have been reports of Deif’s death, the chamber said it could not determine their veracity. The chamber said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Deif is responsible for the crimes of murder, extermination, torture, rape and taking hostages, among other crimes committed on Oct. 7.

This article was updated at 9:52 a.m. on 11/21/2024.