[Source: Reuters]

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected Israel’s request to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war.

In a decision published on the ICC website, judges also rejected an Israeli request to suspend the wider ICC investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian Territories.

The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

The court said in February that judges had withdrawn the arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death.

Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military campaign it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas since the deadly attack on Israel by the militant Palestinian group on October 7, 2023.

It is contesting the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

Israel has argued that an appeals chamber decision in April ordering the pre-trial chamber to review Israel’s objections to the court’s jurisdiction means there is no valid jurisdictional basis for the warrants.

The judges rejected that reasoning as incorrect, saying on Wednesday that Israel’s jurisdictional challenge to the arrest warrants was still pending and the warrants would remain in place until the court ruled on that issue specifically.

There is no timeline for a ruling on jurisdiction in this case.

In June the United States imposed sanctions on four judges at the ICC, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

Two of the sanctioned judges are on the panel that ruled to reject Israel’s request to withdraw the warrants.

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