Necva Tastan Sevinc
16 July 2025•Update: 16 July 2025
ISTANBUL
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected Israel’s request to cancel arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and to suspend the ongoing investigation into crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In its ruling, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC said it had dismissed Israel’s dual request made on May 9, 2025: One seeking the withdrawal, cancellation, or invalidation of the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and another calling for the suspension of the prosecutor’s investigation into the situation in Palestine.
The court rejected Israel’s argument that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, reaffirming its previous decisions.
It added that the Appeals Chamber’s ruling of April 24, 2025, could not be interpreted as undermining the court’s jurisdiction.
According to the decision, “suspension of the investigation is only applicable when a state challenges the admissibility of a case,” under Article 19(7) of the Rome Statute.
The judges noted that Israel had not filed such a challenge regarding admissibility.
The chamber also rejected Israel’s request to deny Palestine the opportunity to present its views, stating that the court already had sufficient information and did not require additional submissions.
The ICC ruled on Feb. 5, 2021, that Palestine is a State Party to the Rome Statute and that the court’s jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
The ICC Office of the Prosecutor officially opened an investigation into the situation in Palestine on March 3, 2021.
Israel challenged the court’s jurisdiction under Article 19(2) of the Rome Statute on Sept. 23, 2024.
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on Nov. 21, 2024, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On April 24, 2025, the ICC Appeals Chamber annulled an earlier procedural ruling that had dismissed Israel’s objection as premature, referring the matter back to the Pre-Trial Chamber for a substantive decision.
