Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have called on judges to reject Israel’s appeal to revoke arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The request also sought to suspend the court’s broader investigation into alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to a report by Anadolu Agency, the prosecutors strongly opposed the Israeli request in a 10-page legal filing published on the ICC’s website on Wednesday night, describing the appeal as legally baseless.
The ICC had issued the arrest warrants on 21 November 2024, accusing both Netanyahu and Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Israel, which formally submitted its request on 9 May 2025 to the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, argued for the cancellation of the warrants and the suspension of ongoing investigations into the situation in the occupied territories.
However, ICC prosecutors firmly dismissed the claims, insisting that Israel’s arguments lacked merit. “There is no legal foundation for withdrawing or vacating the arrest warrants,” the filing stated. They also urged the court not to pause the ongoing inquiry.
While Israel does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC and is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, Palestine is a member state. The court maintains that it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes committed within Palestinian territory.
Israel has come under growing international scrutiny for its actions in Gaza, where it has enforced an 18-year blockade. The ongoing conflict, which escalated significantly in October 2023, has displaced approximately 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents and resulted in widespread famine and destruction.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, nearly 53,800 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed in Gaza, while nearly 970 more have died and over 7,000 have been injured in Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank, including those carried out by illegal settlers.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in July 2024 ruled the occupation of Palestinian territories illegal and ordered the dismantling of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.