We will arrest Netanyahu if ICC issues warrants : Norway FM

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide announced that, should the ICC issue warrants, Norway will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Gallant. This statement made a day after the dramatic declaration by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, positions Norway as the first European country to make such a commitment.

“if an arrest warrant is issued against Netanyahu and Gallant on behalf of the Hague Tribunal, we will be obliged to arrest them if they arrive in Norway,” said Eide adding that “It is the court that decides whether to issue an arrest warrant. If so, all the signatory countries must act on it.”

Similarly, France and Belgium announced on Tuesday their support for the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) application for the issuance of arrest warrants against top Israeli officials and Resistance leaders.

The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, stated on Monday that his office is filing applications for arrest warrants before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Gallant, making it the first action of its kind taken against any major US partner.

Khan said that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for a list of “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza, including “extermination and/or murder, starving civilians, willful killing, willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury,” and deliberate direct attacks against civilian populations in the Strip.