News - Middle East: The Israeli regime is reportedly applying “diplomatic pressure” on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is seeking arrest warrants against the regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its minister of military affairs, Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes.

Israeli paper Ha’aretz reported the development on Wednesday, citing official sources and legal experts as saying that the regime was mounting the pressure through its allies.

At the regime’s request, the report said, Tel Aviv-allied countries have written to ICC, saying the Hague-based court lacked “jurisdiction” to rule in the case.

The countries that have challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction over the issue include the United States, the regime’s biggest benefactor, and Germany.

Earlier this year, the UK's former government also submitted a legal opinion that the court did not have the jurisdiction to issue the warrants. The country’s new Labour government has, however, retracted the challenge.

Norway, Ireland, Colombia, Mexico and other countries have, however, offered observations in support of the court's jurisdiction.

The judges could issue the warrants within just days of reviewing relevant documents.

The regime, though, hopes that the pressures would force them to take weeks to issue the warrants.

“It is hard to predict…how these measures will influence the judges’ decision,” Ha’aretz added.

The ICC's Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan made a formal request for the warrants back in May.

The accusations facing both Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

Khan’s request came amid the Israeli regime’s October 7-present war against the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 39,965 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 92,294.

Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal sliver, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

Tel Aviv has, nevertheless, described Khan’s move as a "historical disgrace."

Source: Press TV