Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that one of the new government's primary objectives would be to fight the International Criminal Court's intent to launch a war crimes investigation against Israel.
Speaking at the government's first cabinet meeting, Netanyahu assessed that the challenge from The Hague – where the ICC is headquartered – was a "rare strategic threat to Israel."
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The prime minister labeled the ICC's intention to launch a probe into alleged war crimes by the IDF in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, one of the five main agenda items over the coming weeks and months.
Israel is not signatory to the Rome Statute from which the ICC draws its power. The Palestinian Authority joined it in 2015 with the explicit aim of trying to have The Hague prosecute Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.
Israel's difficulties in this area were already predicted in April, when Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda declared "Palestine a state," meaning that the ICC could claim jurisdiction in cases involving it. As a result, it could pave the way for war crimes investigations against Israel's military and civilian leaders - as well as Palestinian terrorists.
Netanyahu described the threat that The Hague's potential investigations pose as a "strategic threat to the State of Israel, to IDF soldiers, to the commanders, to the ministers, to the governments, to everything," he said.
Incoming Higher Education and Water Resources Minister Ze'ev Elkin has been tasked with coordinating the government's response to the ICC. Elkin replaced Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz as head of the Interministerial Task Force for the International Criminal Court.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday, blasted the ICC and threatened that the US would "exact consequences" against it if it continued its war crimes probe into Israel. For his part, Netanyahu accused the ICC of "persecuting Israel."
"The International Criminal Court is a political body, not a judicial institution," a statement from Pompeo's office read.
"This unfortunate reality has been confirmed yet again by the ICC Prosecutor's attempt to assert jurisdiction over Israel, which like the United States, is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the Court.
"As we made clear when the Palestinians purported to join the Rome Statute, we do not believe the Palestinians qualify as a sovereign state, and they, therefore, are not qualified to obtain full membership, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC," he said.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
