The decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to apply for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders will bring shame down on the court and turn it into a farce, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted.
"As the prime minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas. This is a complete distortion of reality," Netanyahu said.
"The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court," Netanyahu said in a video message posted on the X messaging service.
Israel was waging a just war against Hamas, Netanyahu said, describing Hamas as "genocidal terrorist organization." He rejected any moral equivalence between Hamas and Israeli leaders as "twisted and false."
The warrant application was a "travesty of justice and a disgrace," he said. It was an attempt to deny Israel the basic right of self defence and would fail.
Netanyahu accused Khan of pouring fuel on the fires of anti-Semitism and said his abuse of his authority would turn the ICC into "nothing more than a farce."