In the midst of Israel's ongoing ground war against Hamas in the beleaguered Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the October 7 terror attacks, Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan said on Saturday that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "should be shot and killed without a trial," news agency ANI reported. Speaking at a demonstration in Kasargod, Kerala, to show sympathy with Palestine amid the continuing crisis in West Asia, the Congress leader publicly endorsed the "Nuremberg model" (invoking the Nuremberg trials of Nazis for the Holocaust) against the Israeli Prime Minister.
"You can ask what should be done to those who break all agreements under the Geneva Convention. After the Second World War, there was something called the Nuremberg trials for bringing those (Nazis) guilty of war crimes to justice. The Nuremberg model to shoot those accused of war crimes dead without trial. It is high time that the Nuremberg model was applied here (against the Israeli PM). Today, Benjamin Netanyahu is standing before the world as a war criminal. It's high time that Netanyahu was shot and killed without a trial because of the atrocities that his forces are committing on Palestinians," the Congress MP was quoted by ANI in its report.
On Friday, the Kasaragod United Muslim Jamaath planned a gathering.
Unnithan is a politician-turned-actor who represents Kasargod in the Lok Sabha.Khaled Mashal, the former head of the extremist group Hamas, virtually addressed a similar solidarity rally in Kerala earlier this month, raising eyebrows in the BJP.
Earlier on Friday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh issued an official party statement criticising Israeli actions in Gaza and requesting that the Centre intervene immediately to bring about a truce.
Meanwhile, South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti have collectively made a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), seeking an inquiry into suspected crimes in Palestinian territory, according to CNN, quoting ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.
"In accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a State Party may refer to the Prosecutor a situation in which one or more crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court appear to have been committed requesting the Prosecutor to investigate the situation for the purpose of determining whether one or more specific persons should be charged with the commission of such crimes," Khan said in a statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi denounced the rising civilian casualties in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict on Friday, saying the developments in West Asia have created new problems. Reiterating India's condemnation of the Hamas terror strikes in southern Israel on October 7, Prime Minister Modi also stated that New Delhi had given humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people.
The confrontation in Gaza erupted following Hamas's October 7 offensive, in which around 2,500 militants infiltrated the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, resulting in injuries and the capture of hostages.
Israel has described its Gaza onslaught as targeting Hamas infrastructure with the objective of eradicating the terror group as a whole while minimising civilian losses.