Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has arrived in Washington, DC just over a month after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for a warrant for his arrest.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said his investigation had found that Gallant, along with Netanyahu, could be responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, including the use of starvation as a “method of war”.
The charges come after Gallant described Palestinians as “human animals” when he ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip on October 9.
In the past, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber has taken several months to decide whether to issue a warrant.
If a warrant is issued for Gallant, he could risk arrest if he travels to any of the 124 states that are party to the court’s Rome Statute.
But while the State of Palestine is one of the countries that recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction as a party to the Rome Statute, the United States and Israel do not.
Instead, US Republican representatives, and some Democrats, have called for the United States to bar entry to ICC officials and restrict their US-based property transactions, in protest against the court seeking warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu.
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