The Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) Appeals Chamber has instructed a decrease panel to rethink Israel’s objections to the court docket’s jurisdiction over arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant, in keeping with a ruling printed on Thursday.
Final November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for allegedly committing grave atrocities, together with the usage of hunger as a way of warfare, throughout Israel’s army marketing campaign in Gaza launched in response to a lethal 2023 raid by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israel, which isn’t a signatory to the Rome Statute, argued that the court docket lacks jurisdiction over its nationals. On the time, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber dismissed Israel’s objections – filed earlier than the warrants had been issued – as untimely.
Nonetheless, the Appeals Chamber has now decided that the decrease panel “dedicated an error of legislation” by failing to adequately deal with Israel’s arguments, and has remanded the matter for a brand new ruling.
The directive doesn’t annul the present warrants however requires the Pre-Trial Chamber to reevaluate the substance of Israel’s jurisdictional objections.
Israeli officers have welcomed the Appeals Chamber’s choice – however criticized it for refusing to droop the arrest warrants instantly. Overseas Minister Gideon Saar said on X that the arrest warrants had been issued unlawfully and are “null and void.”
“We stated it from the beginning: The Worldwide Felony Courtroom in The Hague (ICC) doesn’t have, and by no means had, jurisdiction to concern arrest warrants towards Israel’s Prime Minister and its former Minister of Protection,” Saar wrote.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused the ICC of appearing “as a political instrument serving Israel’s enemies.”
“The choice to revisit the query of jurisdiction exposes the shortage of legitimacy behind the political arrest warrants,” Danon stated, in keeping with an announcement from his workplace. “Israel will proceed to defend itself, in coordination with its companions, and won’t stay silent within the face of such hypocrisy.”
The ICC Prosecutor’s Workplace has acknowledged the Appeals Chamber’s ruling and is at present reviewing the choice, though the timeline for the reconsideration has not been specified. The court docket had additionally issued an arrest warrant for Hamas army chief Mohammed Deif for alleged warfare crimes, which was withdrawn in February 2025 following affirmation of his demise.
