On Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the top war crimes court — issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC also unanimously declined two challenges by the State of Israel brought under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute, contesting their jurisdiction in this case.
The ICC decision to file applications for arrest came as Israel has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza — over half of whom were women and children.
Israel’s first request based on Article 19(2) of the Rome Statute, challenged the court’s jurisdiction over the “Situation in the State of Palestine” was declined by the Court. In the second request under article 18(1), which was also denied by the court. The Israeli government has additionally asked that the prosecution provide a new notification of investigation. Israel requested that the court halt all proceedings regarding this case, including the applications for arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and Gallant that were submitted by the prosecution in May.
Regarding the first challenge, the ICC noted that “acceptance by Israel of the Court’s jurisdiction is not required, as the Court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of territorial jurisdiction of Palestine, as determined by Pre-Trial Chamber I in a previous composition.” Secondly, the ICC ruled that under Article 19(1) states are not allowed to challenge the Courts jurisdiction “prior to the issuance of a warrant of arrest. Thus Israel’s challenge is premature.”
Declining Israel’s request under Article 18(1), the court expressed that the “Prosecution notified Israel of the initiation of an investigation in 2021. At that time … Israel elected not to pursue any request for deferral of the investigation … the parameters of the investigation in the situation have remained the same;” the judge ruled that there should be no delay in the applications for arrest and “no new notification to the State of Israel was required.”
On May 20, 2024, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan filed applications for the arrest of PM Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Gallant. Following this application, the chamber issued a warrant for the arrests of Netanyahu and Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.”
Actual arrest warrant documents were kept classified by the court to protect witnesses and safeguard investigation rituals, however, in a press release the ICC decided to release some information to the public.
Under the outlined terms of the case, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
The Court also found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant each bear criminal responsibility for “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
Israeli officials have denied all charges against them.
