News - Middle East: The International Criminal Court (ICC)’s judges have ruled that the tribunal’s arrest warrants for the Israeli regime’s prime minister and his former minister for military affairs would stand, defying overwhelming Israeli and American pressure.

The judges dismissed the requests on Wednesday concerning the warrants that had been issued last November for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

The orders were issued due to the duo’s actions either leading to, prolonging or reinforcing the regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide on Gaza that has so far claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

The judges said the warrants would remain active while the court continued to review the regime’s so-called objections to its jurisdiction in the case.

They also rejected a parallel Israeli plea to freeze the broader investigation into crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, underscoring the tribunal’s refusal to yield to diplomatic pressure.

The regime, which has long denied the court's jurisdiction, insists the warfare is a legitimate response to a historic resistance operation on October 7, 2023 that took place after decades of US-backed Israeli bloodshed and destruction targeting Palestinians.  

In their ruling, the judges said the regime’s argument that a separate April decision by an ICC appeals chamber invalidated the arrest warrants was “incorrect.”

They clarified that while Tel Aviv’s jurisdictional challenge was still under review, it had no bearing on the current validity of the arrest warrants.

The warrants remain in force, the court stated, until a specific ruling on jurisdiction was made -- a timeline that remains undefined.

The ICC’s determination to proceed with the Gaza war crimes case has unfolded against a backdrop of mounting threats, political interference, and retaliation targeting its senior officials.

On May 1, 2024, Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli lawyer closely tied to Israeli regime, warned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan during a private meeting in The Hague that both he and the court would be “destroyed” if he refused to withdraw the arrest warrants.

Kaufman, who claimed to be relaying an offer from Netanyahu’s legal advisor, urged Khan to reclassify the case files as confidential, suggesting it would allow Tel Aviv to respond privately and help Khan discreetly exit the case.

The lawyer, however, later denied acting on official instruction and claimed he had spoken on his own initiative.

The threats against Khan followed months of escalating US hostility towards the court over the Gaza investigation.

In February 2025, Washington revoked Khan’s visa, froze his assets, and barred his family from entering the US.

By June, the administration of former US President Joe Biden had imposed sanctions on four ICC judges involved in the issuance of the arrest warrants, two of whom participated in the Wednesday ruling that upheld them.

Source: Press TV