ICC Arrest Warrants

Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 2 January 2015, and the Statute entered into force for it on 1 April that year — the practical consequence of the General Assembly’s recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012. A preliminary examination ran for five years. In February 2021 the Pre-Trial Chamber ruled that the Court’s territorial jurisdiction extends to the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and on 3 March 2021 the Prosecutor opened a formal investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine.

The investigation moved slowly until the war that began in October 2023. On 20 May 2024 the Prosecutor applied for warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders. Israel challenged the Court’s jurisdiction and sought a fresh notification of the investigation; on 21 November 2024 Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected both challenges and issued the warrants.

The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, as prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, as minister of defence, bore criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and for crimes against humanity including murder, persecution and other inhumane acts, committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024 — on the basis that they intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of objects indispensable to survival, including food, water, medicine and medical supplies, fuel and electricity, by impeding humanitarian relief. A warrant was issued in parallel for Mohammed Deif, the Hamas military commander, for crimes committed on and after 7 October 2023; the Court later terminated those proceedings following confirmation of his death.

The warrants bind the Court’s states parties, which are obliged to arrest the accused if they enter their territory. Their practical effect has been partial and contested: some governments have affirmed they would execute them, others have said they would not, and Hungary announced its withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2025 while hosting Netanyahu. The United States, not a party to the Statute, imposed sanctions on the Prosecutor and on judges of the Court. Human rights organisations have described the decision as breaking through the perception that certain individuals lie beyond the reach of the law — and the campaign against the Court as an attempt to ensure that they do.

Sources

• ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant — United Nations (UNISPAL)
• ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas commander — UN News, 21 November 2024
• Palestine: ICC Warrants Revive Hope for Long-Delayed Justice — Human Rights Watch, 21 November 2024