The supreme leader of Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, has said that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants, Reuters reports.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants last week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

“They issued an arrest warrant, that’s not enough… Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders”, Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.