Hamas: “Israel’s” Refusal To Cooperate with ICC Act of Arrogance

In a press release on Friday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem warned that “‘Israel’ is acting as if it is above the law and accountability.”

His remarks come a day after “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv would tell the ICC that it would not cooperate with the investigation into the regime’s war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Elsewhere in his comments on Friday, Qassem stressed that this case was a test for international institutions to enforce their decisions, achieve justice, and punish criminals.

Palestine was accepted as an ICC member in 2015, three years after signing the court's founding Rome Statute, based on its “observer state” status at the United Nations.

Both “Israel” and the United States have refused to sign up to the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to be the only global tribunal trying the world's worst crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity.