Foreign ministers from the world’s industrialized countries said Tuesday they strongly supported an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and insisted that Israel comply with international law in its ongoing military operations in the region.
At the end of their two-day summit, the ministers didn’t refer directly to the International Criminal Court and its recent arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over crimes against humanity.
Italy had put the ICC warrants on the official meeting agenda, even though the G7 was split on the issue. The US, Israel’s closest ally, isn’t a signatory to the court and has called the warrants “outrageous.”
However, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said all the other G7 countries were signatories and therefore obliged to respect the warrants.
In the end, the final statement adopted by the ministers 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.”
And it said all G7 members — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – “reiterate our commitment to international humanitarian law and will comply with our respective obligations.” It stressed that “there can be no equivalence between the terrorist group Hamas and the State of Israel.”
The ICC warrants say there's reason to believe Netanyahu used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny.
