ICC rejects Israeli appeal on Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants
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The ICC rejected the Israeli regime's bid to rescind arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, reaffirming their responsibility for war crimes in Gaza.
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ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, left, talks to Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected an appeal by the Israeli occupation seeking to overturn arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Security Minister Yoav Gallant, both accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement released Friday, the ICC ruled that the Israeli regime's attempt to rescind the warrants was “not an appealable issue,” reaffirming its earlier finding that the two officials bear criminal responsibility for atrocities committed during the ongoing war on Gaza.
The decision marks another setback for Tel Aviv, which has been attempting since May to invalidate the ICC’s case on procedural and jurisdictional grounds.
No legal basis to quash Gaza genocide case
The arrest warrants, first issued in November 2024, stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant oversaw systematic war crimes, including deliberate attacks on civilians, starvation as a method of warfare, and collective punishment.
In July, the ICC had already dismissed the Israeli occupation's earlier motion to dismiss the warrants, concluding that there was “no legal basis” to halt the proceedings while a separate jurisdictional challenge remained under review.
A week later, “Israel” sought permission to appeal that ruling, but in a new 13-page decision, ICC judges declared: “The Chamber rejects the request.”
The court continues to assess “Israel’s” broader challenge to its authority in prosecuting what international bodies have increasingly referred to as genocidal acts in Gaza.
Global attention, continued review
In April 2025, the court’s appeals chamber ruled that the pre-trial chamber needed to provide a fuller review of the issue, delaying a final decision on jurisdiction.
Until that ruling is issued, the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant remain active and enforceable in all member states of the ICC.
Netanyahu denounced the ICC’s ruling as an “anti-Semitic decision,” while Gallant accused the court of “criminalizing Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Earlier this year, the White House sanctioned Prosecutor Karim Khan after he requested the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. And earlier last month, the US sanctioned three Palestinian human rights organizations for petitioning the ICC to investigate "Israel" for genocide in Gaza.
