Britain will not challenge the ICC’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu

A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmers says they will not interfere with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) request for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

ICC chief factor Karim Khan requested at the end of May that arrest warrants be issued for Netanyahu and Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to three Hamas leaders. The prosecutor believed that it is reasonable to believe that they are behind war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and in Israel.

Court documents released in June showed that Britain, which is an ICC member, planned to challenge the court’s criminal jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for the two Israeli nationals. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the time thought the arrest warrant was “a very unhelpful development”.

Since then, Labor has formed a new government in Britain, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the previous government had not tabled its proposal before the July 4 election.

– I can confirm that the government will not pursue the proposal in line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide, said the spokesperson.