"On what authority does he dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the most moral army in the world?" Netanyahu asked in a video message.

The Israeli prime minister said Karim Khan's decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials -- Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant -- alongside three leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas -- Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohamed Deif -- was a "complete distortion of reality."

Khan on Wednesday asked judges at the ICC to issue arrest warrants for the five men over alleged war crimes committed during a Hamas rocket barrage on May 7 and Israel's subsequent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The prosecutor alleges the Israeli officials are responsible for using starvation as a "method of warfare" against civilians and "willful killing," while the Hamas leaders are accused of causing the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians on May 7.

"As prime minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the comparison made by the Hague prosecutor between the democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas," the Israeli leader said.

Netanyahu also accused the court, which Israel -- like the United States -- is not a member of and is not obliged to cooperate with, of anti-Semitism.

However, all European Union member states have ratified the Rome Statute that established the court, meaning that if the warrants are issued, the Israeli leaders could be arrested if they travel to Europe, although it is unclear which governments would enforce them.

The warrant requests come more than seven months after a new war in the Gaza Strip was sparked by a Hamas rocket attack on Israeli territory, killing 12 people and wounding hundreds.

Israel responded with a large-scale bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, which killed more than 250 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to Hamas, and caused a severe humanitarian crisis.

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