ICC Situation in the State of Palestine — International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court has been investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Situation in the State of Palestine since 2021; in November 2024 its Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The Situation in the State of Palestine is an active investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 1 January 2015, the State of Palestine lodged a declaration under article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting the Court’s jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, since 13 June 2014; it acceded to the Rome Statute the following day, with the Statute entering into force for Palestine on 1 April 2015. In May 2018 the State of Palestine formally referred the situation to the Prosecutor, and in February 2021 Pre-Trial Chamber I ruled that the Court’s territorial jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Prosecutor opened the investigation on 3 March 2021, and it has since been extended to the escalation of hostilities and violence since 7 October 2023, following further referrals by several states parties.
On 21 November 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected challenges to the Court’s jurisdiction brought by the State of Israel and issued warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Minister of Defence at the time of the alleged conduct. The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that each bears criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, as well as responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population. The Chamber also issued a warrant for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif), the commander of Hamas’s military wing, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Why it matters
- The first ICC investigation into alleged crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the first time the Court has issued arrest warrants for a sitting head of government of a Western-allied state.
- The 2024 arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant made starvation as a method of warfare a chargeable, judicially recognized framework for assessing the siege of Gaza.
- The Court’s situation page is the authoritative primary record — decisions, filings, and statements — for following international criminal accountability on Palestine.
Key resources
Cited work
The summary above is written by FALASTEEN.AI. The document itself is published by International Criminal Court and is linked here in full.