The United States condemned the ICC prosecutor's call for the arrest of Israeli officials

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken rejected the statement of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, regarding the arrest warrants for the high-ranking officials of Israel, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of Israel.

The Secretary of State rejected the International Criminal Court prosecutor's equating Israel with Hamas terrorists, calling it "shameful."

"Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that committed the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust and still holds dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans," Blinken emphasized.

He also recalled that the US initially did not recognize the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague in the context of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and emphasized that the ICC did not provide Israel, which is investigating allegations against its military, to help with the investigation.

According to the Secretary of State, the fact that Israel was ready to cooperate with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the employees of his office headed to Tel Aviv to negotiate this issue, "calls into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation."

"Fundamentally, this decision does nothing to help and could jeopardize ongoing efforts to reach a cease-fire agreement that would allow the release of hostages and increase the volume of humanitarian aid, goals that the United States continues to relentlessly pursue," Blinken concluded.

US President Joe Biden also expressed indignation at the ICC prosecutor's statement about issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

"And let me be blunt: whatever this prosecutor means, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand together with Israel against threats to its security," Biden emphasized.

On May 20, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called on the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and defense minister, as well as several Hamas leaders, on war crimes charges.

When reports surfaced last month that the ICC's chief prosecutor was considering such a course of action, Netanyahu said that any ICC warrants for the arrest of senior Israeli government and military officials "would be an outrage of historic proportions."

The warrants against Israeli politicians, if issued, would be the first time the ICC has targeted a leader of a close ally of the United States.