Earlier this month, the ICC announced it would investigate possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinians following a request by the Palestinians, who joined the court in 2015 after being granted nonmember observer status in the UN General Assembly.
“The Hague is living in the old world. In the Middle East, there is a new area of terrorism,” Kohavi said during a ceremony held at the IDF’s Southern Command which is responsible for security against the Gaza Strip.
He argued that the Hague-based ICC is unfamiliar with the terrorist tactics that IDF soldiers encounter saying there’s a “gulf” between what is happening on the ground and how the judges at the ICC perceive those actions.
“It is our enemies who have chosen to settle in populated areas and place thousands of missiles and rockets there that by definition hit civilians,” he said. “Anyone who thinks of preventing us from attacking rockets inside a populated built-up area is abandoning our citizens in our built-up space.”
“It is incumbent upon the international community to adapt patterns of thinking, patterns of warfare, and international law to the way in which the armies of terrorism are to be fought,” Kohavi urged. READ MORE
