Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday denied the allegation from an International Criminal Court prosecutor that he was starving Palestinians in Gaza as a method of war, arguing the ICC arrest warrant was based on “a pack of lies.”
On CNN, Netanyahu labeled ICC prosecutor Karim Khan a “rogue prosecutor” putting forth “false charges” after he had applied for arrests for the Israeli prime minister and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas. Khan accused the Israeli pair of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
Netanyahu also compared the notion of his arrest to how it would have looked if President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been arrested for leading the Allied war effort in World War II.
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“Or,” he went on, “it’s like issuing arrest warrants for George W. Bush but also for [Osama] bin Laden. It’s absurd.”
While the arrest warrant has garnered support from some human rights groups like Amnesty International and three European countries, including France, President Joe Biden called it “outrageous,” saying there is “no equivalence” between Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The same day as Netanyahu’s interview on CNN, the United Nations suspended its food distribution services in Rafah due to dwindling supplies and unstable conditions on the ground as a result of Israel’s military activities in the Gaza city, which have killed civilians, including many children. The suspension occurred despite Israeli leaders backing down from a full invasion of the city after Biden objected, an unidentified senior U.S. official told the Associated Press.
“Humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse,” a spokesman for the U.N.’s World Food Program said, warning that “famine-like conditions will spread” if food and other supplies aren’t received in bulk.
Approximately 1.1 million people in Gaza are living in near-famine conditions, the U.N. said.
