The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected a legal challenge by Israel against its investigation of the Gaza war on Monday, leaving in place arrest warrants issued last year for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
On appeal, judges refused to overturn a lower court ruling that the prosecution’s probe into alleged crimes under the court’s jurisdiction may include events after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The decision means the investigation will continue, and the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant remain in effect.
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International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands. Credit: Peter Dejong/AP
International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands. Credit: Peter Dejong/AP
Israel has argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes in Gaza, saying that under international law it should have the opportunity to examine the claims itself.
But ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said the investigation is a continuation of a probe opened against Israel in 2021, when Israel rejected the chance to investigate its own actions. Authorities in Jerusalem, however, maintain that this is a separate investigation.
The ruling addresses only one of several legal challenges Israel has filed against the ICC’s investigation and the arrest warrants. There is no timeline for when the court will rule on the remaining challenges to its jurisdiction in the case.
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Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned Monday’s decision, saying it showed the politicization of the ICC and “its blatant disregard for the sovereign rights of non-party states.”
It added that the ruling violated the Rome Statute, which requires a prosecutor starting a new investigation to contact the country being investigated and inform it of the matters under review. “This is what politics in the guise of ‘international law’ looks like,” the ministry said.
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In November 2024, the ICC announced that it had issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity.
The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe the two had committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution, and the intentional directing of attacks against civilians.
Last April, Netanyahu flew to the United States on a route roughly 400 kilometers longer than the optimal one to avoid passing over countries expected to enforce the arrest warrant.
On an earlier trip to the U.S. in September, the Wing of Zion aircraft extended its flight by more than 600 kilometers, bypassing European airspace because of the warrants.