The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Thursday for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallantas well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deifon alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of a series of human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip, where local health officials said the death toll from the year-long Israeli military assault on the Palestinian enclave has now surpassed 44,000.

Israel responded angrily to the warrants, with Netanyahu’s office labeling the decision “anti-Semitic”, dismissing the allegations as “absurd and false” and condemning the ICC as “a biased and discriminatory political body”.

Hamas hailed the mandates as an “important step towards justice”, but senior political official Basem Naim said the court’s decision “remains limited and symbolic unless supported by all means by all countries in the world to implement it”.

Both Israel and the United States do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, which has no police to enforce its mandates. But the warrants put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe.

In its announcement on Thursday, the ICC rejected Israel’s challenges to its jurisdiction. It said the warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant were related to “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least October 8, 2023 to at least May 20, 2024,” including “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts”.

It also said that reasonable grounds were found to believe that they bear criminal responsibility as “civilian superiors” for the war crime of “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.

Netanyahu and Gallant were accused of “intentionally and knowingly depriving the civilian population of Gaza of items indispensable to their survival, including food, water and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”

The ICC said it also found that their behavior had hindered the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential items to those in desperate need in the enclave.

NBC News has reached out to Gallant’s office and the State Department for comment.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim AA Khan said in May that he was filing requests for the arrest of Netanyahu, Gallant and other senior Israeli officials. He also sought arrest warrants for Hamas figures who played key roles in the ongoing war, including the leader Yahya Sinwarwho was killed in Gaza in October.

On Thursday, the court issued a separate arrest warrant for Deif, an alleged architect of the Oct. 7 terror attack that Israel said it killed earlier this year.

Deif has been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including for his role in the Oct. 7 attack in which Israeli officials said about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage, a major escalation of the decades-long conflict.

The ICC noted that Khan initially submitted requests for arrest warrants for Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated by Israel in July. But he said the claims were withdrawn after their deaths were confirmed.

The court launched an investigation three years ago into possible war crimes by both Israeli and Palestinian militants dating back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

Netanyahu labeled Khan a “rogue prosecutor who wants to demonize the one Jewish state.”

And Thursday’s development drew swift condemnation from Israeli officials, with President Isaac Herzog saying the arrest warrants marked a “dark day for justice” and “a dark day for humanity.”

“Taken in bad faith, the scandalous decision of the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock,” he said.

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., of President-elect Donald Trump the choice to be national security adviser, condemned the ICC, which he said lacked “credibility”.

“Israel has lawfully defended its people and borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the anti-Semitic bias of the ICC and the UN in January,” he said in a post on X.

President Joe Biden previously condemned the ICC’s efforts to issue the arrest warrants as “outrageous,” suggesting they implied a false “equivalence” between Israel and Hamas.

Some human rights advocates welcomed the decision.

“The court’s issuance of the arrest warrants is an important step forward for justice for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who until now have mostly experienced injustice,” Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told NBC News.

“All 125 members of the International Criminal Court are now bound to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they dare to step on their turf,” he said Thursday, adding: “The world has suddenly become much smaller for Netanyahu and Gallant.” .

Roth said governments that provide military support to Israel, including the U.S. — the country’s biggest arms supplier — should take these into account as well.

“Any government that continues to supply weapons to Israel while these crimes continue, which they do, is on notice that they could be charged with aiding and abetting these crimes,” he said.