From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisie, and this is the Daily. Earlier this week, the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested

arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister and its Defence Minister.

The move shocked Israelis and set up a possible showdown

between the world's top criminal court and Israel together with its biggest ally,

the United States. Today, my colleague Jerusalem Bureau Chief Patrick Kingsley explains. It's Thursday, May 23rd.

So, Patrick, So Patrick earlier this week there was a pretty surprising announcement by the

International Criminal Court in the Hague. It had to do with Israel and Hamas.

Tell us what happened.

Well, on Monday morning we were all taken by surprise

by an announcement from the chief prosecutor at the ICC, the International Criminal Court, the top Criminal Court in the

world, it tries individuals accused of war crimes and the chief prosecutor announced that he was requesting arrest warrants for five individuals involved in the war between Israel and Hamas for crimes against humanity.

Three of them were from Hamas.

Yahya Sinwa, the head of Hamas within Gaza, the Hamas military commander and the political

leader of Hamas who's based in Qatar.

But maybe the biggest news in this announcement was that the chief

prosecutor was seeking the arrest of two of Israel's top leaders. Benjamin

Nesen Yahoo, the Prime Minister, and Joav Gallant, the defense minister.

And this was a massive bombshell.

These two men are leaders from a major US ally, they're in regular contact with the US government,

and they were being implicitly equated with the three top leaders of an organization, Hamas, that many

consider a terrorist organization.

And this equation sent shockwaves through Israeli society and indeed around the world.

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