Khan announced today the request for the issuing of warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh.

The suspects are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the ICC, a judicial body based in The Hague (Netherlands).

Hamas denounced the ICC's attempts to "put the victim on the same level as the executioner by issuing arrest warrants for a certain number of leaders of the Palestinian resistance", according to a statement cited by the French agency AFP.

The group, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, considered that the ICC targeted Palestinian leaders "without a legal basis and in violation of international conventions and resolutions".

Such conventions "give the Palestinian people and all peoples of the world under occupation the right to resist the occupation by all means, including armed resistance", it said.

Hamas considered that the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant come "seven months late", in reference to the ongoing Israeli offensive against Gaza, in response to the attack of October 7.

Since then, "the Israeli occupation has committed thousands of crimes against Palestinian civilians, including children, women, doctors and journalists, destroying private and public property, mosques, churches and hospitals", it said.

Hamas also criticized that the request from the ICC prosecutor concerns "only two war criminals from the Zionist entity", according to the Spanish agency Europa Press.

Khan should have filed the request against "all senior officials of the occupation [Israel] who gave the orders" for the offensive against Gaza, Hamas argued.

The warrants should also target "the soldiers who participated in the practice of crimes" and "all those who ordered, instigated, committed, supported or failed to take measures to prevent these crimes", according to the Palestinian group.

"Hamas calls on the ICC prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for the arrest and detention of all war criminals", the group said.

Hamas also called for the cancellation of the warrants "against the leaders of the Palestinian resistance".

Sinwar and Al-Masri, also known as Deif, are believed to be hiding in Gaza, but Haniyeh, the supreme leader of Hamas, is based in Qatar and travels frequently throughout the region.

In the case of Netanyahu and Gallant, Khan allegedly held them responsible for killing civilians by starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury, cruel treatment, willful killing and extermination, among other crimes.

The warrants against the Palestinian leaders stem from the October 7 attacks on Israeli territory, which caused about 1,200 deaths and 245 kidnappings, and from the actions of the Islamist group in Gaza since then.

The ICC said that the suspects "planned and instigated the commission of crimes on October 7 and, through their actions, including personal visits to the hostages after the abductions, acknowledged their responsibility for these crimes".

The three are suspected, among other crimes, of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape and other acts of sexual violence, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and other inhumane acts, in the context of captivity.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused more than 35,500 deaths, according to Hamas.

The Palestinian authorities also claim that about 490 people have been killed by Israeli forces and in settler attacks in the West Bank since October 7.

Also Read: Israel creates a special committee to fight the "outrageous" decision of the ICC (Portuguese version)