Benjamin Netanyahu to address US congress ‘soon’: House Speaker

The Israeli PM will address a joint session of US congress in a show of US support over the International Criminal Court’s bid for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address congress ‘soon.’ Picture: AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon address the US congress, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Thursday, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza strip and despite the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli leader and his defence minister.

“We will soon be hosting Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Capitol for a joint session of congress,” Mr Johnson said, adding that the visit would mark “a very strong show of support to the Israeli government.”

The invitation comes as Israel braces for the worst, with the UN’s top court preparing to rule on a request by South Africa to order Israel to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

South Africa has petitioned the International Court of Justice for emergency measures to order Israel to “cease its military operations in the Gaza Strip” including in Rafah city, where it is pressing an offensive.

Multiple Israeli media outlets report that Jerusalem was preparing for the ruling and was concerned that it would include an order to either stop the operation in Rafah or stop the war entirely.

However Israel’s Channel 12 cited unnamed officials as saying Jerusalem does not intend to uphold such a ruling.Speaking ahead of the decision, a government spokesperson told Reuters: “No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.”

The rulings of the ICJ, which judges on disputes between states, are binding, but it has no power to enforce them -- it has ordered Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine to no avail, for example.

But a ruling against Israel would increase the international legal pressure after the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor said Monday he was seeking arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders.

In hearings last week, South Africa charged that what it described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza had hit a “new and horrific stage” with its assault on Rafah, the last part of Gaza to face a ground invasion.

The Rafah campaign is “the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people”, argued Vaughan Lowe, a lawyer for South Africa.

“It was Rafah that brought South Africa to the court. But it is all Palestinians as a national, ethnical and racial group who need the protection from genocide that the court can order,” he added.

Lawyers for Israel hit out at South Africa’s case as being “totally divorced” from reality and

Meanwhile, Israel launched devastating air strikes on Gaza and killed a prominent member of Hezbollah, as the country awaits the ICJ decision on the war and on arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan this week recommended Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly using starvation as a tactic against civilians in Gaza. He has also made the same recommendations against three Hamas leaders.

Israel says it has complied with its obligations under international law. The ICJ decision will come Saturday (AEST).

The Israeli military has confirmed the strike on Muhammad Ali Nasser Farran, who they said was involved in “the production of Hezbollah’s strategic and unique weapons.”

Hezbollah also confirmed Farran’s death.

بمزيد من الفخر والإعتزاز، تزف المقاومة الإسلامية الشهيد المجاهد محمد علي ناصر فران "ناصر" مواليد عام ١٩٨٩ من مدينة النبطية في جنوب لبنان، والذي ارتقى شهيداً على طريق القدس. pic.twitter.com/r39LY0cJrd

— الثانية (@AlthanytA) May 23, 2024

International pressure for a ceasefire has mounted on Israel and Mr Netanyahu as three European countries said Wednesday they would recognise a Palestinian state. Jerusalem on Thursday local time expressed its readiness to resume stalled talks on a truce and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The week started with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor seeking arrest warrants on war crimes charges against Netanyahu and his defence minister as well as three Hamas leaders.

Israel has angrily rejected those moves, voicing “disgust” over the ICC request and labelling any recognition of Palestinian statehood a “reward for terrorism”.

Senior foreign ministry official Jacob Blitstein told the envoys of Ireland, Norway and Spain on Thursday that there will be “serious consequences” for their relations with Israel after they recognise the State of Palestine next week.

But domestic pressure has also risen as supporters of hostages trapped in Gaza again rallied outside Netanyahu’s office, passionately demanding a deal to bring them home.

A newly released video showed five female Israeli soldiers, tied up and some with bloodied faces, in the hands of Palestinian militants during the attack more than seven months ago.

The three-minute clip, taken from a militant’s body camera footage, was released by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum on Wednesday after the Israeli army lifted censorship on it.

“The footage reveals the violent, humiliating and traumatising treatment the girls endured on the day of their abduction, their eyes filled with raw terror,” the forum said.

Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting Hamas to “ensure what we have seen tonight never happens again”.

But his office also said that the war cabinet had asked the Israeli negotiating team “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages”.

In Egypt, which has been hosting the indirect negotiations, Al-Qahera News, which is linked to the intelligence services, reported that “the Israeli position is still not sufficient to reach a deal”. It did not elaborate.

The previous round of truce talks, involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, ended shortly after Israel launched its attack on Gaza’s far southern city of Rafah early this month.

Israel went ahead with the assault on the last city in Gaza to be entered by its ground troops in defiance of global opposition, including from top ally the United States.

Washington voiced concern that the 1.4 million Palestinians then sheltering in the city would be caught in the line of fire.

Israel has since ordered mass evacuations from Rafah, and the UN says more than 800,000 people have fled.

“We’re not smashing into Rafah, we’re operating carefully and precisely,” armed forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that so far the Rafah operation had been “more targeted and limited” than feared and “has not involved major military operations into the heart of dense urban areas”.

But he stopped short of saying that Israel had addressed US concerns, adding that Washington was closely watching ongoing Israeli actions.

His Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi has meanwhile given a bleak assessment of the war to a meeting of parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 13.

He reportedly said that Israel has “not achieved any of the strategic aims of the war – not conditions for a hostage deal; we haven’t toppled Hamas; and we haven’t allowed residents of the (Gaza) periphery to safely return home”.

AFP