"It's an absolutely logical decision. In fact, I think they took too long to take it," Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a video posted on his X (formerly Twitter) social media account, part of an interview with Qatar's Doha News TV. "There is an attempt to destroy a people and a nation and this is not acceptable," Mahamat added in Doha, where the 2024 Global Security Forum is taking place. The African Union (AU) has condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza from the outset, expressing its "deep concern" at the "massive loss of life and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure." Mahamat has repeatedly stated the pan-African body's solidarity "with the Palestinian people and their legitimate quest for an independent and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital."

African Union Chairman @AUC_MoussaFaki welcomes the @IntlCrimCourt prosecutor's recent decision to seek arrest warrants against #Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu and Defence Minister @yoavgallant over the war on #Gaza, describing the move as "logical" and "overdue". @GSECForum pic.twitter.com/QjoJD1CHjx

— Doha News (@dohanews) May 21, 2024

The ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan of Britain, announced on Monday that he had asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

On the Hamas side, arrest warrants have been requested for the Islamist group's leader Ismail Haniyeh, its Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and the commander of its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif.

The prosecutor's decision comes as the death toll in the Gaza Strip has passed 35,500 and the Israeli military steps up its offensive in the enclave after more than seven months of war.

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