THE HAGUE — Judges on the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) on Wednesday rejected Israel’s request to withdraw arrest warrants towards its prime minister and former protection minister whereas the ICC opinions Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza battle.
In a choice revealed on the ICC web site, judges additionally rejected an Israeli request to droop the broader ICC investigation into alleged atrocity crimes within the Palestinian Territories.
The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former protection chief, Yoav Gallant, in addition to a Hamas chief, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged battle crimes and crimes towards humanity within the Gaza battle.
The court docket stated in February that judges had withdrawn the arrest warrant for al-Masri, also referred to as Mohammed Deif, following credible stories of his demise.
Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court docket and denies battle crimes in Gaza, the place it has waged a navy marketing campaign it says is geared toward eliminating Hamas because the lethal assault on Israel by the militant Palestinian group on October 7, 2023. It’s contesting the warrants towards Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel has argued that an appeals chamber resolution in April ordering the pre-trial chamber to assessment Israel’s objections to the court docket’s jurisdiction means there isn’t a legitimate jurisdictional foundation for the warrants.
The judges rejected that reasoning as incorrect, saying on Wednesday that Israel’s jurisdictional problem to the arrest warrants was nonetheless pending and the warrants would stay in place till the court docket dominated on that subject particularly.
There isn’t a timeline for a ruling on jurisdiction on this case.
In June the US imposed sanctions on 4 judges on the ICC, an unprecedented retaliation over the battle tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Two of the sanctioned judges are on the panel that dominated to reject Israel’s request to withdraw the warrants. — Reuters
