- US State Department announces halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza
LONDON: Arrest warrant applications against two far-right Israeli ministers on charges of apartheid are ready and with two deputy prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Middle East Eye reports.
If the warrants for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are issued, it will be the first time that the crime of apartheid is charged at an international court.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan had prepared cases against Ben Gvir and Smotrich before he went on leave in May, according to numerous sources in the court with knowledge of the matter.
“Those applications for the arrest warrants are completely done,” an ICC source told MEE. “The only thing that didn’t happen was submitting them to the court.”
On the other hand, the US State Department has said it is halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts “a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days”, Reuters reports.
France urges Israel to drop West Bank settlement plan
Meanwhile, France’s foreign ministry has called on Israel to drop a plan to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank, calling the project “a serious violation of international law”, AFP reports.
A ministry spokesman said that France “condemns with the utmost firmness” the Israeli decision to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank.
Several countries have said that the project, called E1, undermines hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Netahyahu has become a ‘problem’, says Danish PM
In related development, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem”, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war as her country currently holds the EU presidency, AFP reports.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, adding that the Israeli government was going “too far.”
The centre-right leader slammed the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and the new settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said.
Frederiksen added that she wanted to consider “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole,” referring to trade or research sanctions.
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect,” added Frederiksen, whose country is not among those that have said they will recognise the Palestinian state.
