"The simultaneous request for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders on the one hand and against two Israeli leaders on the other has created the false impression of an equivalence" between these leaders, the German Foreign Ministry (MFA) said in a statement, while stressing that it respects the "independence" of the ICC.

Berlin added that the Hague-based court "will have to assess very different facts" following the prosecutor's request.

"The Hamas leadership is responsible for a barbaric massacre during which, on 7 October, men, women and children were brutally murdered, raped and kidnapped in Israel. Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages in unspeakable conditions, to attack Israel with rockets and to use the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as human shields," the German diplomacy argued.

In view of this, "the Israeli government has the right and the duty to protect and defend its population against such acts," the German MFA argued, adding that in this case, "international humanitarian law and all its obligations must apply."

In the eighth month of the war in the Gaza Strip, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan today requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes such as "willfully killing civilians by starvation," "willful killing" and "extermination and/or murder."

The charges against Hamas leaders, including its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinuar, include "extermination," "rape and other forms of sexual violence" and "hostage-taking as a war crime."

It will now be up to the ICC judges to analyze this request for arrest warrants by Karim Khan.

"The court will have to answer a number of difficult questions, including the question of its jurisdiction and the complementarity of investigations by the rule of law states concerned, such as Israel," Berlin argued, since Israel is not a State Party to the ICC.

On October 7 last year, Israel declared war on the Gaza Strip to "eradicate" Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory hours earlier, killing more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) -- in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel -- also took 252 hostages, 124 of whom remain in captivity and 37 have since died, according to the latest Israeli army figures.

The war, which today entered its 227th day and continues to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, has so far caused more than 35,500 deaths in the Gaza Strip, nearly 80,000 injured and about 10,000 missing, presumably buried in the rubble, mostly civilians, according to updated figures from local authorities.

The conflict has also caused nearly two million displaced people, plunging the overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian enclave into a severe humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a "catastrophic hunger situation" that is claiming victims - "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN in food security studies worldwide.

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