ICC judges reject Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants
17/7/2025 6:10
Judges at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected
Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime
minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews
Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of
the Gaza war.
In a decision published on the ICC website, judges also
rejected an Israeli request to suspend the wider ICC
investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian
Territories.
The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief,
Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for
alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza
conflict.
The court said in February that judges had withdrawn the
arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif,
following credible reports of his death.
Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and
denies war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military
campaign it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas since the deadly
attack on Israel by the militant Palestinian group on October 7,
2023. It is contesting the warrants against Netanyahu and
Gallant.
Israel has argued that an appeals chamber decision in April
ordering the pre-trial chamber to review Israel's objections to
the court's jurisdiction means there is no valid jurisdictional
basis for the warrants.
The judges rejected that reasoning as incorrect, saying on
Wednesday that Israel's jurisdictional challenge to the arrest
warrants was still pending and the warrants would remain in
place until the court ruled on that issue specifically.
There is no timeline for a ruling on jurisdiction in this
case.
In June the United States imposed sanctions on four judges
at the ICC, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal's
issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Two of the
sanctioned judges are on the panel that ruled to reject Israel's
request to withdraw the warrants.
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