Denmark takes note of ICC's arrest warrant applications against Israel's Netanyahu, Gallant

Denmark on Tuesday said it has taken note of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor's recent move to apply for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three leaders from Hamas.

"I look at this with great seriousness. After all, we recognise the ICC and stand guard over its independence. And therefore I can do nothing more than take note of it," Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, according to state news media outlet DR.

"It seems a little precarious to me that the leader of a democratic state is mentioned on an equal footing with the leader of a terrorist organization,” the foreign minister said, adding: “But it does not change my conclusion, namely that we have respect for the ICC."

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday said he was “filing applications for the warrants of arrests" over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in relation to the war on Gaza, which was triggered after an Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas cross-border attack that claimed 1,200 lives and another 250 were taken as hostages.

Israel's military operations since then have killed more than 35,600 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip besides causing forced internal displacement, conditions of famine, and reducing the enclave to rubble. The war has also led to Israel's ongoing trial over alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.