UN rights office says 'fully' supports ICC's work after Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants

The UN human rights office on Thursday said it "fully" supports the International Criminal Court's (ICC) work to further accountability, after the tribunal's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct in the Gaza war.

"We respect the independence and competence of the International Criminal Court under the Rome Statute, across all situations and cases over which it has jurisdiction. We fully support its work to further accountability for the most serious international crimes," spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told Anadolu in a written statement.

"States parties to the Rome Statute have obligations to respect and give effect to decisions of the Court, in accordance with which we would expect them to act," Laurance urged.

The Hague court's Pre-Trial Chamber I said it “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024."

On their alleged crimes, the court said it “found reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."

Israel's genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed some 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.