Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and chief of staff Gen.Herzi Halevi visit the Netzarim corridor in Gaza, 19 November 2024 (Credit: Abaca Press/Alamy Live News)
Exclusive: Days after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, its top general flew to London.
Israel’s top soldier, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, visited Britain earlier this week, the UK government has confirmed to Declassified.
The visit came three days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
Those include “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”, as well as “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.
Halevi was initially reported to have been included in the ICC’s arrest applications for the crime of having “deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza”. He was also forced to apologise in April after the Israeli military killed seven international aid workers including three Britons in Gaza.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told Declassified: “As part of the concerted UK effort, along with allies and partners, to reach a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza, the Chief of the Defence Staff hosted his counterparts from Israel and other European partners”.
The spokesperson added: “Discussions included the UK calls for an immediate ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza and the need for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law while recognising Israel’s right to security”.
A ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was announced on Tuesday.
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon on November 25, 2024. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said one group.
Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on “all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted.”
“The time for peace is now—not just in Lebanon, but in Gaza and across the region,” FCNL declared on social media. “We urge U.S. officials to ensure this agreement brings an immediate end to the Israeli government’s devastating and indiscriminate bombing and attacks against Lebanese civilians, which have been fueled by U.S. weapons.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the National Security Cabinet approved the cease-fire in Lebanon with a 10-1 vote—only far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted no. The office added that “Israel appreciates the U.S. contribution to the process, and reserves the right to act against any threat to its security.”
Netanyahu said in a speech to Israelis that “the length of the cease-fire depends on what happens in Lebanon. With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack.”
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said that he worked with French President Emmanuel Macron to negotiate the cease-fire, which is set to begin at 4:00 am local time on Wednesday. The United States has spent at least tens of billions on Israeli military operations and related U.S. operations in the region since the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
“As Biden spoke tonight, Israel was raining U.S. bombs down on Lebanon and Gaza,” notedDrop Site journalist Jeremy Scahill.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday thanked France and the United States for negotiating the truce, which he said is “a fundamental step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon” and “helps to establish regional stability.” He also reiterated his government’s intention to “strengthen the army’s presence in the south.”
Cross-border battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah over the past nearly 14 months have displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel and over 1 million in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Tuesday that Israel’s assault—which has intensified since September—has killed at least 3,823 people and injured another 15,859.
In Gaza, the death toll is at least 44,249, with 104,746 wounded, according to local officials. Israeli forces have also decimated civilian infrastructure and displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, who are struggling to access necessities, due to limits on aid. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court last week issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader.
“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said FCNL. “More violence and suffering in Gaza will not make Israel, the U.S., or anyone safer or more secure. It must end now. We reiterate our calls for our government to use all U.S. leverage to bring about a full regional cease-fire to end the horrific suffering of Palestinians, protect all civilians, return all hostages home, de-escalate regional tensions, and begin the long road toward healing.”
“That must include prohibiting more offensive weapons shipments and U.S. military involvement, which would send a message of impunity to the Israeli [government] in the face of repeated and grave violations of U.S. and international law in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and beyond,” the group added—just days after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel.
Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, responded similarly to the Tuesday development, saying in a statement that “we welcome news of a cease-fire agreement in Lebanon and hope that it can be implemented and sustained to prevent further harm to civilians who have been under threat of attack or suffered other great loss during the fighting.”
“This agreement nonetheless comes too late. While Israel has the right to legitimate self-defense against Hezbollah, the Netanyahu government’s deliberate escalation of the conflict in September resulted in disproportionate harm to civilians, hundreds of whom have been wounded or killed, with hundreds of thousands more displaced,” Okail said. “Mixed messages and prevaricating by the Biden administration on its position on Israel’s escalation and the need for a cease-fire [have] further prolonged the fighting and exacerbated the death and destruction it has brought.”
“The U.S. and its partners must ensure that the terms of this agreement are fully honored so that civilians on both sides of the border can safely return to and rebuild their communities,” she added. “What remains of the utmost urgency, however, is also ending the war in Gaza, where the U.S. arming of the Netanyahu government’s campaign of displacement, starvation, slaughter and—per the repeated vows of senior Israeli officials—settlement continues in violation of American and international law.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir in June 2021. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / שי קנדלר
Following ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants against top Israeli officials over Gaza’s genocide, Ben-Gvir bluntly threatened to escalate the situation in the West Bank, confirming Israel’s disregard of international law.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) in the southern occupied West Bank on Friday, November 22, accompanied by thousands of Israeli settlers.
A Palestinian citizen from a local committee working to defend Hebron city from Israeli violations told Anadolu Ajansı that Ben-Gvir and the settlers escorting him performed Talmudic rituals for the Jewish holiday Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah) inside the mosque. He added that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) imposed a curfew on the old city of Hebron, where the Ibrahimi Mosque is located, banning Palestinians from reaching the area during the settlers’ raid.
Meanwhile, the director of the Ibrahimi Mosque Mutaz Abu Sneineh informed media outlets that the IOF closed the mosque to Muslim worshipers and employees through Saturday evening. The Ibrahimi Mosque itself has also been the site of numerous settler attacks. In 1994, extremist settler terrorist Baruch Goldstein entered the mosque during a prayer and open fired, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring over 100.
While settler violence against Palestinians has a long history that goes back to the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, the rise of extremist leader Ben-Gvir since 2019 has been accompanied by a sharp uptick in attacks and provocative acts. Ben-Gvir has been labelled by Israeli and western media alike as a provocateur, pyromaniac, ultranationalist, and an extremist settler.
Ben-Gvir has been part of Netanyahu’s government, playing a key role in shaping politics and decision making, since 2022 as the Minister of National Security. Ben-Gvir’s illegal attacks and provocations would not be possible without his government’s policies and rhetoric which explicitly back settler violence.
Israel’s new Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, announced on Friday the suspension of administrative detention for Israeli settlers who carry out attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority slammed Katz’s decision as it would further encourage settlers to commit more crimes against Palestinians.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that Katz’s decision “would encourage supremacist colonists to commit acts of terrorism against Palestinians and their properties and further foster their impunity.” The Ministry also called for effective international action to restrain settler “militias” and protect the Palestinians from their violence.
Katz’s decision may be seen as part of the plan recently declared by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for the West Bank annexation early November. The plan was re-iterated by Ben Gvir, who called for implementing it in response to the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants orders for top Israeli officials on Thursday, November 21.
According to analysts, Israeli ministers aim at fueling the situation in the West Bank to find a pretext to end the Oslo Accords which granted the Palestinian Authority self-governance over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and to undermine international efforts for a two-state solution.
