Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the head of the International Criminal Court (ICC) a "merry cabal" and "absurd" as she filed an application to appeal to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber for issuing arrest warrants against him, defence minister Yoav Gallant and several key Hamas leaders.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the real war criminals are not in Israel," Netanyahu said in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday. "They're in Iran. They're in Gaza, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Yemen. Those of you who stand with these criminals, those of you who stand with evil against good, with the curse against the blessing, those of you who do so should be ashamed of yourselves."
Reports said the ICC is looking to issue arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, alongside Netanyahu, over war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints lodged related to the October 7 attacks on Israel and the war that followed in Gaza.
"Given the anti-Semitism at the UN, it should surprise no one that the prosecutor at the ICC, one of the UN's affiliate organs, is considering issuing arrest warrants against me and Israel's Defence Minister -- the democratically elected leaders of the democratic state of Israel," Netanyahu said.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan responded to the claims, telling CNN, "Nobody is above the law."
He retaliated by accusing the ICC of rushing to judgment, accusing that this decision to target him because of his refusal to treat Israel with its own, independent courts "like the rest of the democracies" was impossible to account for "with anything other than pure anti-semitism."
And, of course, he talked about the continuing conflict with Hezbollah, even saying Israel had no alternative but to fight it as long as it continued to threaten Israel from its base in Lebanon. "As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right, to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely," he said. Roughly 60,000 Israeli civilians have been displaced by Hezbollah attacks since October 8, and the Israeli military has stepped up its operations against the group in recent days.
Netanyahu also said that Israel's military had killed or captured more than half of Hamas' 40,000 fighters, destroyed 90 percent of the group's rocket arsenal and key infrastructure, in a nearly one-year conflict.
Netanyahu boasted to Israeli soldiers that the high price of the war in Gaza, where the local authorities reported more than 41,945 killed and 96,006 injured, "tell them enough"; his message ended with an exultant declaration: "We are winning!".
He offered scarce details about what governance in Gaza after the war might entail, merely stating, "Israel will reject any role for Hamas in a post-war Gaza." Conversely, he emphasized Israel's interest in demilitarizing and deradicalizing the territory, promising to collaborate with regional and local partners to support an administration that would be civilian and committed to living alongside Israelis in peace.
Netanyahu spoke with two maps, which exemplified his argument. One showed Israel and its Arab partners forming a "land bridge connecting Asia and Europe," representing the "blessings of peace and prosperity." The other map represented what he called the "arc of terror" imposed by Iran, reaching from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.
"There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach -- that's true for the whole of the Middle East," Netanyahu warned, pointing out the stance taken by Israel against Iran's influence in the region.
