Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is not afraid of being arrested as a suspected war criminal in New York and that special forces are on standby if it were attempted.
New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, recently called on the federal government to enforce an arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court in 2024.
While the US is not a member, the arrest warrant means Netanyahu is now an internationally wanted suspect and that the ICC’s 124 member states – including the UK – would be obliged to arrest him if they were to enter their territory.
In an interview with Sean Hannity for Fox News, the host asked Netanyahu if he feared landing in the US in a situation such as a “medical emergency”.
“You travel internationally, God forbid you had a medical emergency, and you need to land, and you’re about to land in a country that recognises the ICC. It could complicate things. Do you worry about that?” Hannity asked.
“Yeah, I think about it,” Netanyahu responded. “You know, we have special forces around. I served for five years.”
Hannity responded that the Israeli military was “pretty tough,” to which Netanyahu said: “Yeah. Let’s give them a new task.”
He said he had no plans to cancel an impending trip to New York.
“First of all, I’m going to New York... I’m going to speak the truth in front of this hate-spewing elected official,” he said.
“He’s pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others. He’s turning them against New York Jews. I mean, what are we, in the 1930s? So much hate. So many lies.”
A warrant for the Israeli leader’s arrest was issued in November 2024, accusing him of being “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” in Gaza.
He is also accused of “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024”.
Netanyahu denies the claims and has called them “antisemitic”.
Mayor Mamdani told The New York Times: “I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague.
“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that it is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”
He later clarified that New York did not have the jurisdiction to enforce his arrest but called on the federal government to take action. But Trump has said that Netanyahu will not be arrested if he lands in the US.
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.
“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago by previous Presidents!”
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