Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei greeting the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer Islamic militia in Tehran on Nov. 25, 2024. (Credit: AFP Photo/HO/Khamenei.ir)
The supreme leader of Iran said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants. His remarks come a day after Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Khamenei, stated that Iran is preparing to "respond" to Israel in an interview with Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant and a Hamas leader, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif.
"They issued an arrest warrant, that's not enough ... Death sentences must be issued for these criminal leaders," Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.
In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza."
The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Gaza residents expressed hope it would help end the violence and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
The warrant for a Hamas leader, al-Masri, lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that triggered the war on the long-blockaded Palestinian enclave, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.
Israel has said it killed al-Masri in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.
On Oct. 26, Israeli fighter jets carried out three waves of attacks on Iranian military targets, a few weeks after Iran fired a barrage of about 200 ballistic missiles against Israel in response to its assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian brigade general Abbas Nilforoushan in Lebanon.
Iran has previously vowed to respond to Israel's attacks.
