Khaberni - The Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court rejected the Israeli objection to the arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in November 2024. The court had accused them of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
According to a statement from the court today, Monday, the judges of the appeal at the court by a majority vote, rejected another challenge submitted by Israel to stop the court's investigation into its management of the war on the sector.
The decision indicates that the investigation is ongoing and that the arrest warrants issued last year against Netanyahu and Galant "are still in force".
For his part, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Oren Marmorstein, denounced the decision and accused the court - in a post on the X platform - of politicization and "blatant disregard for the sovereign rights of non-member states".
The court is currently studying another Israeli objection concerning its jurisdiction, and a request for the removal of Prosecutor Karim Khan.
The court had previously in July 2023 rejected a request from Israel to cancel the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant, and also rejected an appeal for this decision in October 2023.
On November 17, 2023, five member states of the court (South Africa, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Comoros, and Djibouti) requested an investigation into the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
UK Threat
A few days ago, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, revealed that the UK government threatened to stop funding the court and withdraw from the Rome Statute that established it if it proceeded with plans to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
Karim Khan mentioned this claim in a memo submitted to the court in defense of his decision to prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister. This was on April 23, 2024, when Khan received a decisive phone call from a British official whose identity was not disclosed.
The Prosecutor General - a Briton of Pakistani origin - clarified that the British threats were not the only ones, as he had also received warnings from an American official that issuing arrest warrants would lead to "disastrous consequences".
During another call on May 1, 2024, he was warned by US Senator Lindsey Graham that executing the warrants might lead Hamas to kill Israeli prisoners.
