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sumi: i am sumi somaskanda in washington and this is bbc "world news america." the icc issues arrest warrants for benjamin netanyahu and yoav gallant as well as a hamas leader, citing criminal responsibility for alleges were crimes. russia sends a missile in direct response to ukraine using western weapons. former congressman matt gaetz withdraws as president elect donald trump's nominee for attorney general. ♪ welcome to "world news america." the international criminal court issued arrest warrants on thursday for the israeli prime

minister, his former defense minister and a hamas leader over alleged war crimes. the icc said there was reasonable grounds to believe that benjamin netanyahu and yoav gallant were responsible for war crimes and other inhumane acts in the war between israel and hamas. mr. netanyahu accuse the icc of antisemitism saying his country would not be deterred. the u.s. said it fundamentally rejects the decision. a separate warrant was issued for hamas military commander mohammed deif. he was a key architect of the october 7 attacks in which more than 1200 people were killed and 250 abducted. they believe mohammed deif is responsible for murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence. israel said it killed mohammed deif earlier this year although the court said it is not in a position to

determine that. >> this announcement by the icc has provoked the reactions you would expect. really intense here in israel. there has been a vitriolic response from israelis across the political spectrum, not just the prime minister's office or the president but those in opposition. yoav gallant, one of the two people mention alongside benjamin netanyahu, has pointed to what he said was the appalling equation or the equating of israel with a prescribed terrorist organization, putting them in the same guilty box. there have been accusations the rulings work anti-semitic and they are coming from a corrupt chief prosecutor. there is not an apology from israel or regret or remorse at

the incredibly high number of civilian casualties in gaza since the war was prosecuted from october 7 onward following the murderous raid. from ordinary palestinians the reaction has been different. they welcomed it. mohammed deif, the only hamas member mention, is almost certainly dead and will not be appearing in court. will this have a big effect on israel and benjamin netanyahu? to some extent. he can still travel to the u.s. but it makes it difficult for him to go to the u.k., canada and europe. it is a blow for israel's international standing. sumi: we are speaking to the former prime minister. the icc warrants are a mark of shame for the court, it was written. there are 124 members.

these words were said to not be political and the court decision should be respected. what is your response to that? >> the entire warrant is based on falsehoods. the whole goal of the international court is to prosecute an event where there is a country that is lawless. it is not about a liberal democracy with the rule of law. this is a phony court. the fact that judges or people wear costumes and seem to be judges does not mean it is fair or correct. we will fight back because we are fighting the most just war ever. we were attacked on october 7 my hamas. hamas attacked us, murdered, burned, raped israelis and citizens. we are fighting against a terror

organization and we will not be deterred. sumi: that is why the court also issued an arrest warrant for a hamas military leader and others who had been killed. the court points -- naftali: these are corpses. it is a joke. does that sound fair? sumi: i want to come back to israel's position. the first act is a starvation as a method of warfare. the u.n. warned that aid has not been delivered to northern gaza in nearly 40 days now. what is your response to that? naftali: 1.136 million tons of aid have entered gaza. that represents 3000 calories per day per gazan. more food than before. there is a problem.

hamas hijacks that food and uses it in the black market. these reports on mass. we are not seeing it and it is not true. this phony court does not make it true. sumi: we have spoken to a number of aid organizations who have all told us that israel is not allowing enough aid. israel is the closest ally to the u.s. and there was a letter that said there were concerns that israel was using starvation as a war tactic. naftali: first of all, the biden administration and i expect also the trump administration -- but president biden himself said this court is a sham and irrelevant. it does not have jurisdiction. regarding the issue of bringing food in, as i said, we are not limiting food into gaza.

the problem is we have a mafia, hamas, it takes the food and then deprives its own people because it wants to make money on them. not a big surprise. instead of pointing fingers at israel, hamas is at fault and that is why we need to defeat hamas. sumi: as you know hamas is deemed a terror organization by the u.s. and u.k. you said israel is the liberal democracy. what responsibility does israel have to make sure civilians are not starving during the prosecution of israel's warrings . naftali: there you go again. you keep saying civilians are starving. that is not the case on the ground. sumi: you reject everything? naftali: is that a big surprise? the u.n. human rights committee has been led by iran.

these international institutions, everyone knows they are a sham. instead of focusing on a genocidal regime that wants to wipe out israel, we did not want to hurt the gazans. they started the war with a massacre. sumi: hamas started the war, not gazans. naftali: let me finish. let me finish. we bend over backward to prevent unnecessary deaths of gazans. hamas uses hospitals and schools and homes as a terror base and we are fighting this crazy situation. what the icc is doing is giving back wind to one of the worst terror regimes in the world. this is a war for everyone. if we do not defeat the radical jihadi is love will hit washington, d.c., london and paris. it has already. this is a war we are fighting against terror organizations and

we expect the world to back the liberal democracy. sumi: let me ask you this -- i saw you wrote all is ready's left and right stand behind the war whose goals is to release the kidnapped israelis and destroy hamas. we have spoken to a number of family members of hostages who say they reject that. do you agree with that assessment? naftali: i will say this. all israelis left and right are very angry about this icc ruling. i am no big supporter of prime minister netanyahu and i am not a supporter of his government but this morant is not against the prime minister -- but this morant is not against the prime minister. regarding your question, there are meaningful debates in israel regarding the prosecution of the war.

we should have done it much more quickly in order to get the results. those are tactical disagreements. sumi: we will have to leave it there for today but thank you for joining us on bbc news. naftali: thank you very much. sumi: i also spoke to the former ambassador at large for war crimes issues in the office of global criminal justice. i want to get your reaction to the icc issuing these arrest warrants. >> this was very much expected. the prosecutor applied for them six months ago. there was a substitution of judge that caused some delay. i frankly suspected we would see what we saw today. sumi: israel, as you know, we have seen the country is furious and israeli legal experts who

are deeply critical of the prime minister are disturbed the icc are appearing to put it israeli and hamas commanders in the same category. how do you feel that can be a justified? >> they are not in the same category. intentional crimes are being charged against a hamas leader. the israel case deals with the deprivation of humanitarian access. we have seen even less humanitarian access in the last two months in terms of northern gaza. i am familiar with the israeli position. i saw the letter they wrote to antony blinken last week. these are issues the court can litigate. also at this stage, those arrest warrants that have been issued for gallant and netanyahu, they have the right to file a motion

under article 19 of the court's statute objecting on the grounds that israel has genuinely investigated any of these allegations in terms of depriving humanitarian access and they fulfill their obligations. sumi: just to follow-up on that, israel does have legal recourse? >> they do have legal recourse. the defendants can object-based on israel is itself conducting genuine investigations in terms of this humanitarian deprivation issue. it does not have anything to do with the bombings and attacks on buildings and other infrastructure. it has to do with whether israel is blocking and is not providing -- the needs of the people of gaza in areas that are effectively in control. sumi: israel's defense has been the difficulty providing aid is

because it is hamas preventing aid and has been stealing aid. why was that not seen as a legitimate defense? >> that is a defense on merits. the issue is whether there are sufficient trucks being allowed in. there were more than 100 trucks coming in at the beginning of the conflict, now far fewer. there are still 2 million people in gaza. there is no other way they can get food. they cannot grow it or fish it at the moment given the conflict. humanitarian needs have increased. . whatever israel is allowing in. is not sufficient. the looting and the security situation is very real and that can be presented in a case. it has been ngos, the others involved that have said simply not enough is being allowed in. sumi: one quick last question --

what does this mean practically if israel and the u.s. are not members of the court? >> the court made a jurisdictional determination that palestine was able to join as a state and refer the situation. the court's orders will be upheld and the warrants will be out there and this will prevent travel by these two israeli leaders in 124 states, including almost every country in europe and the e.u.. it will have that kind of effect. in the u.s. there is a strong reaction and we might see sanctions against the icc in efforts to harm the court, even in other cases in ukraine and sudan. there will certainly be effects from this decision that will not be good for international -- at the moment, these warrants stand

and parties to the icc are obligated to comply with them and arrest and transfer these three individuals to the icc if they come to their territory. sumi: u.s. envoy met with israeli officials on thursday in an attempt to secure the terms of a cease-fire proposal between the country and hezbollah. he is also said to have met with mr. netanyahu. despite the negotiations israel continued airstrikes in beirut with local officials saying at least 47 people were killed in eastern lebanon. our correspondent has more from beirut. >> the u.s. envoy was in israel on thursday for talks with senior israeli officials, including prime minister benjamin netanyahu. this visit follows two days of talks in beirut for a cease-fire in the conflict between israel and hezbollah.

the lebanese government and hezbollah have largely accepted a proposal put forward by american officials. we still do not have details about the proposal or the changes that have been made. there has been no official reaction after the talks that happened in israel. meanwhile, violence has continued. on thursday is ready airstrikes killed more than 45 people in eastern lebanon, according to the local governor. there were multiple attacks on beirut's southern suburbs, an area where hezbollah is based. as you can probably hear, there has been in israeli drone flying over central beirut. this has been happening for hours. hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into israel. one man was killed in one of those attacks in northern israel. here in lebanon there was cautious optimism these

negotiations could result in a deal to end this conflict. a conflict that has killed more than 3500 people here in lebanon. more than one million residents have been forced to flee their home and the world bank says there have been more than $8.5 billion in economic losses and damage because of this conflict. a lot of people in this country are desperate for a deal to end the violence here. sumi: russia's president vladimir putin confirmed on thursday that moscow tested a new intermediate range missile and a strike on ukraine. the bombardment targeted several cities. russian forces were targeting one of ukraine's weapons manufacturing facilities. the missile used in the attack, codenamed oreshnik, has been

described as a nonnuclear hypersonic version of a ballistic missile. mr. putin boasted western nations will not be able to intercept the missile because there are no ways to counteract it. mr. putin made clear thursday strike were in response to a ukraine strike using american and british weapons. he vowed pressure will always respond to future attacks. >> the>> question of further deployment of missiles will be decided depending on the actions of the united states and its satellites. targets to be destroyed during further testing of our newest missile systems will be determined based on threats to the security of the russian federation. we consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities. sumi: here in the u.s. former congressman matt gaetz with through as donald trump's nominee for attorney general on

thursday following criticism from democrats and republicans on his controversial nomination. gaetz was under investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct, bribery and other alleged crimes. in a statement on x mr. gaetz said momentum was strong but my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction. there is no time to waste on a washington scuffle. i will be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general. the president elect on true social saying i appreciate the efforts of matt gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general. at the same time he did not want to be a distraction for which he has much respect. matt has a wonderful future and i look forward to watching all of the great things he will do. let's speak about this with the former director of strategic communications in the trump-pence 2020 campaign and former to donald trump.

what is your reaction to seeing matt gaetz did withdraw his name to be attorney general? matt: it shows matt gaetz's commitment to president trump. it would require a lot of effort by the president below -- the president-elect and his team to get matt gaetz over the finish line. removing his name from consideration allows the president to move forward with a different champion but also allows them to put his efforts in making sure his cabinet gets confirmed without his name in it. sumi: that is what we saw in the statement from donald trump. we saw cnn reporting the woman who said she had sex with mr. gaetz when she was a minor had a second encounter with him. do you think that might have prompted what we saw? marc: i cannot speak to the truth of that. i know he has denied the allegations.

we are seeing a growing case file against the former congressman. he knew more information would continue to come out. it would leak out, especially from the ethics organization. it was not going away. he did the big thing by withdrawing himself and allowing the president to move forward. sumi: is it still important to see the report the house ethics committee put together? marc: he is no longer a congressman so at that point the house ethics committee would be issuing a report to tarnish a person's reputation who is no longer in office. that is not something to have ever done before and i would suggest any democrats who want that should be careful what they wish for because when their names arm in an ethics investigation, it will find its way out, as well. sumi: is there another roll for matt gaetz in the second trump administration? marc: i cannot speak for the

president-elect. matt it is a fighter who has taken on various causes in congress. he has quite a legal background and he has shown his chops when interrogating people in committee hearings. i could see there would be an informal non-senate committee role. we do not know what he wants to do next. sumi: do you have a sense of where donald trump might be leaning in terms of finding another pic for attorney general? marc: marc: not in terms of names. he will want someone who can prosecute the case, go in and reform the department of justice and the politicization of that agency. getting it back to its true mantra -- fighting crime, protecting american interests at home and abroad. sumi: it is not just matt gaetz. there is controversy around some of the other nominees including

pete hegseth and rfk jr., some of his views on vaccines. do you think this is casting a shadow over donald trump's transition? marc: a lot of people in the mainstream liberal media are trying to make it an issue. one thing they are forgetting is no matter what it individual's personal beliefs or former positions might be, they are there to serve at the pleasure of the president and enact the policies of the president. if they want to support or endorse their own policies behind the scenes, they are more than welcome to do it but it is ultimately the president who will say this is where we are going and if you want to be a part of my administration you will support the policies i prescribed because he was the one elected by the american people. sumi: great to talk to you as always. thank you so much. before we go, one of america's

favorite animated tv shows is losing an iconic voice. pamela announced she is retiring from "the simpson's," where she voiced several characters. her final episode will be episode 7 of season 36 on november 24th. she said the millhouse character taught her about perseverance and optimism. remember you can always find more on all of the day's news on our website, bbc.com/news. we have some of our lead story is by our correspondents around the world. see what we are working on it any time on your favorite social media site. you can always download the bbc apt to get your latest headlines and analysis around-the-clock. for all of us in washington, thank you for watching "world news america" and stay announcer: funding for presentation of this program

is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

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