Middle East latest: Netanyahu denounces international court arrest warrant against him

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The announcement came as health officials in the Gaza Strip said the death toll from the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000.

Netanyahu condemned the arrest warrant against him, saying Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” In a statement released by his office, he said: “There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.”

On Thursday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said 44,056 people have been killed and 104,268 wounded since the start of the war. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access.

The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Israel launched its war against Hamas after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

The Israeli offensive has caused heavy destruction across wide areas of the coastal territory and displaced 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people.

Israel has also launched airstrikes against Lebanon after the Hezbollah militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.

On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.

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The European Union's foreign policy chief has underlined that the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas officials are a legal and not political matter, and that they are binding on all 27 EU member countries and other signatories to the ICC to implement.

“The tragedy in Gaza has to stop," Josep Borrell told reporters during a visit to Jordan. “It is not a political decision. It is the decision of an international court of justice, and the decision of the court has to be respected, and implemented.”

“This decision is a binding decision on all state parties of the court, which include all members of the European Union," he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling partyhas welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamn Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, calling it a judgement made for the sake of “humanity.”

Omer Celik, spokesman for the Erdogan’s party, said on the social media platform X that Netanyahu and Gallant would “eventually be held accountable for genocide.” Celik also criticised Israeli officials who described the ICC decision as antisemitic.

Turkey is among the most vocal critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and has submitted a formal request to join a genocide case that South Africa has filed against Israel at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice.

Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp, whose country hosts the International Criminal Court, has confirmed The Netherlands would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he arrived on Dutch soil.

“The line from the government is clear. We are obliged to cooperate with the ICC ... we abide 100% by the Rome Statute,” he said in response to a question in parliament Thursday.

Other European officials were more cautious.

In France, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said he supported the International Criminal Court's prosecutor but declined to comment when asked more specifically if France would arrest Netanyahu if he were to step on French soil.

“Today, combating impunity is our priority. We ratified the ICC Statute in 2000 and have consistently supported the court’s actions. Our response will align with these principles,” Christophe Lemoine told reporters at a press conference.

Lemoine added that the warrants were “a complex legal issue ... It’s a situation that requires a lot of legal precautions.”

In Italy, the foreign and justice ministries didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment about whether Italy, an ICC member which hosted the Rome conference that gave birth to the court, would honor the arrest warrant.

Premier Giorgia Meloni hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March 2023 and has strongly supported Israel since Oct. 7, while providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s mostly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, has called the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a dark day for justice. A dark day for humanity.”

In a post on X, he said the international court “has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity."

Israel Katz, Israel’s new defense minister, said the decision was “a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international judicial system to an unprecedented low.” He said it “serves Iran, the head of the snake, and its proxies.”

Benny Gantz, a retired general and political rival to Netanyahu, also condemned the decision, saying it showed “moral blindness” and was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.”

Hamas has welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court to issue warrants against Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, calling it an “important and historic precedent” after what it said was decades of injustice at the hands of a “fascist occupation.”

The statement did not refer to the warrants issued for the militant group’s own leaders.

Hamas called on all nations to “cooperate with the court in bringing the Zionist war criminals, Netanyahu and Gallant, to justice, and to work immediately to stop the crimes of genocide against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.”

DEIR AL-BALAH, The Gaza Strip — Bakeries have reopened in the central Gaza Strip after being closed for several days because of flour shortages.

The shortages appear to have been linked to the looting of nearly 100 truckloads of aid by armed men in southern Gaza last weekend.

Associated Press footage showed a crowd of hundreds pushing and shouting outside a bakery in the central city of Deir al-Balah on Thursday. The day before the reopening, the price of a bag of 15 loaves of pita bread had climbed above $13.

“In my house, there is not a morsel of bread, and the children are hungry,” said Sultan Abu Sultan, who was displaced from northern Gaza during the war.

The amount of aid entering Gaza plunged in October as Israel launched a major offensive in the isolated north, where experts say famine may be underway.

Hunger is widespread across the territory, even in central Gaza where aid groups have more access. Humanitarian organizations say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order make it difficult to deliver assistance.

Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ October 2023 attack, has displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into tent camps with little in the way of public services and are reliant on international food aid.

The president of Cyprus says the European Union must play a bigger role in the Middle East as it can no longer stand by as an observer.

President Nikos Christodoulides said the 27-member bloc needs to establish closer ties with countries that bolster regional stability like Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states.

“The conflict in the Middle East is taking place on the EU’s doorstep, in an area of vital interest to the bloc’s interests, where any escalation or regional spillover will have significant consequences on its security and stability,” Christodoulides told an Economist conference in the Cypriot capital.

Christodoulides said EU member Cyprus for years has tried to get this message across to Brussels. The island nation earlier this year was the staging ground for a maritime corridor delivering some 20,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The EU is wracked by members’ divisions over how peace should come about in the Middle East

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza and the October 2023 attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a cease-fire to end the 13-month conflict.

But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court and several of the Hamas officials have been subsequently killed in the conflict.

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have previously condemned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic. U.S. President Joe Biden also blasted the prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. Hamas also slammed the request.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000, local health officials said Thursday.

The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The Health Ministry said 44,056 people have been killed and 104,268 wounded since the start of the war. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in residential areas, where they have built tunnels, rocket launchers and other military infrastructure.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.

The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.

Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, after warning people to evacuate.

FILE - Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

FILE - Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu enters the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A Palestinian girl looks at a damaged cars following an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.

The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.

So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.

Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.

Colombia's environment minister Susana Mohamed said without a figure offered by developed nations, “we are negotiating on nothing.”

Panama's Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said the “lack of commitment transparency feels like a slap in the face to the most vulnerable."

"It is just utter disrespect to those countries that are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” he said. “Developed countries must stop playing games with our life and put a serious quantified financial proposal on the table.”

Gomez listed places where negotiators worked on the issue: South Africa, Germany, the Philippines, Egypt, Austria, Switzerland, Dubai, Colombia and a few times here in Baku, asking “For God’s sakes, what’s the next stop? Mars? Do we need to go to outer space to get a quantitative number from our developed countries to be able to start negotiating here?”

Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue also blasted the lack of a number in the draft deal.

“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”

Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, also expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.

Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”

Even United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “I don’t think you can go on and on and on without clarifying the key aspects of the negotiation.”

Lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.

“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.

The European Union’s climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”

And Xia Yingxian, a member of China delegation, also said the current draft text contains many “unsatisfied and unacceptable” parts.

In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”

“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be released in the next iteration of the draft.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”

Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve seen little movement.

European nations and the United States criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.

“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”

U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said he was surprised that “there is nothing that carries forward the ... outcomes that we agreed on last year in Dubai.” The United States, the world’s biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, has played little role in the talks as it braces for another presidency under Donald Trump.

But members of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance such as Colombia, Ireland and Denmark, who are pushing for an end of fossil fuels, said the lack of wording on transitioning away from fossil fuels is not a deal killer for them.

Days earlier, the 20 largest economies met in Brazil and didn't mention the call for transitioning away from fossil fuels. Guterres, who was at that meeting, said official language is one thing, but reality is another.

“There will be no way” the world can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius "if there is not a phase out of fossil fuels,” Guterres said at a Thursday news conference.

Also on Thursday, the EU, Mexico, Norway and several other countries announced they would release plans to rapidly cut emissions over the next decade to meet the landmark Paris agreement’s goal of restraining global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, although they did not detail how those cuts would happen.

Under the agreement, countries need to detail their voluntary plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by early next year.

“There is a real risk of falling short,” said Tore Sandvik, Norway’s minister of climate and environment. “We must reinforce the message that the Paris agreement is functioning as intended.”

Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem and Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Susana Muhamad, environment minister of Colombia, left, speaks at a session next to Denmark Climate Minister Lars Aagaard during a session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Attendees have "pay up" taped on their mouth during the People's Plenary at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, arrives for a news conference at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists display signs that read "stop fueling genocide" during the People's Plenary at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, speaks during a news conference at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Children advocate for a clean planet during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, left, and Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan's COP29 lead negotiator, speak during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Austria Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler, left, talks with Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen before a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Jennifer Morgan, Germany climate envoy, arrives ahead of a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, arrives for a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Panama Climate Envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, left, and Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, attend a session on climate targets during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A security person stands near a logo for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists participate in a demonstration for climate justice at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)