Israel submits challenge to ICC arrest warrant request for Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem on September 4, 2024. (Photo by ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP)

JERUSALEM — Israel said on Friday it had submitted an “official challenge” to a request from the International Criminal Court prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in May requested the court issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel has waged war in Gaza against Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

“The State of Israel submitted today its official challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction, as well as the legality of the prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and minister of defense,” foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on X.

Khan also sought warrants against top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The prosecutor dropped the application for Haniyeh on August 2 “because of the changed circumstances caused by Mr. Haniyeh’s death” in Tehran on July 31, the ICC said in a statement this month.

According to Israel, Deif was killed by a strike on July 13 in southern Gaza, though Hamas denies he is dead.

The court is still weighing Khan’s application for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant.

In August, Khan’s office urged the court to take action “with utmost urgency,” saying that it was “settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation.”

Legal battle

Hamas’s October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.

Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which deals with disputes between countries, the ICC tries individuals suspected of the most heinous crimes.

It is the world’s only independent court set up to probe the gravest offenses, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

However, it relies on its member states to carry out arrest warrants and has no police force of its own.

Khan’s charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “starvation of civilians”, “extermination”, and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population”.

US President Joe Biden has denounced Khan’s bid for arrest warrants for the Israeli officials as “outrageous”, saying “there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court, but accused parties are allowed to raise legal challenges even if they are not members.

The Israeli challenges were submitted to the court’s pre-trial judges, who will decide whether or not to issue arrest warrants, Israeli officials said on Friday.

Marmorstein said on Friday that Khan had failed “to provide Israel with the opportunity to exercise its right to investigate by itself the claims raised by the prosecutor, before proceeding.”