Italy says clarity needed on ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
G7 avoids explicitly mentioning warrants at end of summit but says Israel has to comply with all international law
Italy said on Tuesday it was ready to respect its obligations concerning the International Criminal Court’s warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, but that clarity was needed on how it would work in Netanyahu’s case.
“We always apply the obligations but we have to understand what the obligations are,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told a news conference on Tuesday, saying it was not clear whether high state officials enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
He added that “Netanyahu would never go to a country where he can be arrested,” and that “the arrest of Netanyahu is unfeasible, at least as long as he is prime minister.”
The ICC warrants also sparked tension within Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Rome would have to abide by its obligations and arrest Netanyahu if he came to Italy, while Matteo Salvini — the leader of the coalition League party — said the Israeli leader would be welcome in the country.
A joint statement of Group of Seven foreign ministers on Tuesday avoided mentioning the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, despite an effort by the Italian hosts to find a common position on it.
Italy, which currently chairs the G7, said on Monday it wanted to try to forge a common position about the warrant at a two-day meeting it hosted in the spa town of Fiuggi, which ended on Tuesday.
The final statement did not explicitly mention the ICC or the warrants but said Israel, in exercising its right to defend itself, “must fully comply with its obligations under international law in all circumstances, including international humanitarian law.”
“We reiterate our commitment to International Humanitarian Law and will comply with our respective obligations,” the statement added, stressing “that there can be no equivalence between the terrorist group Hamas and the State of Israel.”
The G7 meeting of foreign ministers, the last to take place during the Biden administration, was dominated by the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Ministers were heartened by indications that a ceasefire was in the offing between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We are tracking this very closely. I hope and believe we can get this over the finish line,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a G7 briefing.
Last week, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Gallant — as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed by an IDF strike in Gaza in July — for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
The move was strongly criticized by the United States, which is not a party to the ICC and has said it will not comply with the warrants, but other states including Britain and Italy did not rule out that they could make an arrest if Netanyahu visited their countries.
Israel condemned the ICC decision as shameful and absurd while Hamas praised it as a step towards justice.
The war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists rampaged through civilian communities and IDF bases, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 44,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 380. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.
