France says it supports the decision of the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders. This was indicated on Tuesday by the Quai d’Orsay in a press release published during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
France “supports the International Criminal Court” whose prosecutor has requested arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the Quai d’Orsay said on the night of Monday to Tuesday. “France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence, and the fight against impunity in all situations,” French diplomacy wrote in a press release regarding these arrest warrants.
“France condemned on October 7 the anti-Semitic massacres perpetrated by Hamas. This terrorist group claimed barbaric attacks directed against civilians, accompanied by acts of torture and sexual violence that it itself documented, including understood by spreading and celebrating them,” continues Paris. Regarding Israel, “France has been warning for many months about the imperative of strict compliance with international humanitarian law and in particular about the unacceptable nature of civilian losses in the Gaza Strip and insufficient humanitarian access”, adds the communicated.
The Americans are rebelling
And to emphasize that a “lasting political solution” is the “only” way to “restore a horizon of peace”. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including “deliberately starving civilians,” “intentional homicide.” and “extermination and/or murder” in connection with the Israeli operation in Gaza.
Karim Khan also requested warrants against three senior Hamas leaders – Ismaïl Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinouar – for notably “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “hostage-taking as a war crime. If Paris supports the ICC, American President Joe Biden defended Israel in the face of international justice, deeming the request for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders “scandalous”. His head of diplomacy, Antony Blinken, declared that the magistrate’s approach was “a shame”. In France, several leaders of the left welcomed the ICC’s announcement on Monday.