Germany said Monday the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court's application for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes created a "false impression of equivalence".
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan earlier in the day made a request to the court for warrants to be issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as senior Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar.
"The simultaneous application for arrest warrants against the Hamas leaders on the one hand and the two Israeli officials on the other has given the false impression of equivalence," a spokesman for the German foreign ministry said in a statement.
Hamas had perpetrated a "barbaric massacre" with its October 7 attack on Israel, the spokesman said.
"Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages in unspeakable conditions, attacks Israel with rockets and uses Gaza's civilian population as human shields," he said.
"The Israeli government has the right and duty to protect and defend its people from this," the spokesman said.
In this context, however, it was "clear that international humanitarian law with all its obligations applies", he added.
Germany is among the countries to have called on Israel to improve access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The court would now have to assess "very different cases", the spokesman said.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also took 252 hostages during the attack, of whom 124 remain held in Gaza including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 35,562 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.