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‘Modern Dreyfus Trial’: Netanyahu, Backed by Israeli Leaders, Denounces ‘Antisemitic’ ICC Arrest Warrant Ruling

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony for those murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and those who fell in the “Iron Sword” war, at the Knesset, the Parliament, in Jerusalem, Oct. 28, 2024. Photo: DEBBIE HILL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday lambasted the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for him and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, calling the ruling “antisemitic” and the charges on which it was based false.
“Israel utterly rejects the false and absurd charges of the International Criminal Court [ICC], a biased and discriminatory political body,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “No war is more just than the war Israel has been waging in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist organization launched a murderous assault and perpetrated the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
The Hague-based ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
The war began last Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, invaded neighboring southern Israel and perpetrated a bloody massacre that killed 1,200 people and wounded thousands more. During the onslaught, the terrorists perpetrated mass sexual violence and kidnapped over 250 hostages.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.
However, the ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which has provided significant humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave throughout the war.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office noted that the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, initially made his surprise demand for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on the same day in May that he suddenly canceled a long-planned visit to both Gaza and Israel to collect evidence of alleged war crimes. The last-second cancellation infuriated US and British leaders, according to Reuters, which reported that the trip would have offered Israeli leaders a first opportunity to present their position and outline any action they were taking to respond to the war crime allegations.
“The antisemitic decision of the International Criminal Court is a modern Dreyfus trial — and will end the same way,” the Israeli premier added.
Albert Dreyfus was a French army officer falsely convicted of espionage in a landmark case that sparked antisemitic violence across France.
Antisemitism has surged globally since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, amid the ensuing Gaza war, with countries around the world reporting record spikes in antisemitic attacks and other incidents targeting Jewish communities.
Netanyahu vowed that “no anti-Israel decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens.”
In a rare show of unity, bitter political foes of Netanyahu from across the Israeli political spectrum joined him in condemning the ICC decision.
“Israel defends its life against terrorist organizations that attacked, murdered, and raped our citizens. These arrest warrants are a reward for terrorism,” said Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack but quit in June, lambasted what he called the ICC’s “moral blindness,” calling the ruling a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog similarly said the ICC “chose the side of terrorism and evil over democracy and freedom and turned the international justice system itself into a human shield for Hamas’s crimes against humanity.”
The ICC has “lost all legitimacy” after issuing the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
“A dark moment for the International Criminal Court,” Saar posted on X, adding that it had issued “absurd orders without authority.”
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the ICC showed “once again that it is antisemitic through and through.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Netanyahu to sever contact with the court and impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and its leaders.
“Israel will continue to defend its citizens and its security with determination,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Gallant on the ICC decision.
“Israel is fighting … the most just of wars against pure evil. All Israelis, left and right, stand behind the war, whose goals are to release the kidnapped Israelis, demolish Hamas and restore security to Israel. Shame on ICC,” wrote former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a right-wing critic of Netanyahu.
Amir Ohana, speaker of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, and a top member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, expressed similar sentiments: “Targeting the democratically elected leaders of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state, is nothing short of an assault on justice, truth, and the universal right of self-defense.”
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
Countries that are signatories, including several in Europe, are bound by the charter to enforce its rulings and arrest warrants.
The post ‘Modern Dreyfus Trial’: Netanyahu, Backed by Israeli Leaders, Denounces ‘Antisemitic’ ICC Arrest Warrant Ruling first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.