TEHRAN - Israel has come under unprecedented pressure for its mad war in Gaza. It may have not seen itself in such a predicament in its 75-year history.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his so-called defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip; the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah”.

France, Belgium and Slovenia have issued statements backing the world's top criminal court and its chief prosecutor's request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. Germany, the second major arms supplier to Israel in its war on Gaza, has announced it will abide by international law in case the ICC issues the arrest warrant for Netanyahu; German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has also said Israel has violated international law; European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said all states, including the EU states, “that have ratified the ICC statutes are bound to execute the Court’s decisions.”

Also, students from universities around the Western world, especially in the United States, are holding rallies against the war in Gaza; an absolute majority of the countries are backing full membership for Palestine in the United Nations; three European countries of Spain, Ireland and Norway have announced they will formally recognize a Palestinian state from May 28.

“Israel turned into a pariah state”

All these moves and remarks coupled with the rise in global public anger over Israel’s brutality against civilians in the Gaza Strip have turned Israel into a pariah state in the world.

Even before the Gaza war, Israeli rulers were seen as cruel by most people around the world. Also, years before the ongoing war, opinion polls in the United States showed that Americans viewed Israel as one of the major threats to global peace and security. World leaders in almost all countries were also unhappy with the policies of Israel, although they preferred to remain silent for political expediency.

After October 7 when Hamas made a surprise attack on southern Israel that resulted in the death of about 1,140 people (though a considerable number of them were targeted by the Israeli army) and about 250 others were captured, Israel bought sympathy for itself and some Western leaders made individual visits to Israel to express support for Israel. However, this sympathy did not last long as Israel got mad in its retribution against the Palestinians in Gaza, creating a situation that has shocked the entire world.

Surely, hundreds of millions of people in the world didn’t know and even now don’t know that on October 9, two days into the war, Gallant declared, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

As the Israeli army has been indiscriminately butchering Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza, settlers in the West Bank have also been making deadly attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, atrocious acts that have added salt to the injury.

Israel, which had always been trying to depict itself as the only democratic country in the Middle East and deceitfully trying to portray its atrocities against Palestinians as a struggle for survival has turned out to be the cruelest regime in the 21st century and largely singled out. The world's public opinion has largely turned in favor of the Palestinians and only zealots in Congress and elsewhere are shamelessly backing criminals in Israel.