Law
What has the ICC actually done?
ALLEGATION AND FINDINGS
The short answer
The ICC is different from the ICJ. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) deals mainly with disputes involving countries. The International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute individual people for crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
The fuller explanation
The ICC is different from the ICJ. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) deals mainly with disputes involving countries. The International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute individual people for crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The judges found reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for alleged crimes including the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
This is extremely serious — but an arrest warrant is not the same as a conviction. Neither man has been tried or found guilty by the ICC.
The ICC also issued a warrant for senior Hamas commander Mohammed Deif over alleged crimes including murder, hostage-taking and sexual violence relating to October 7. That case was later terminated after the ICC received evidence of his death.
Israel rejects the ICC's jurisdiction and denies the allegations against its leaders.
The important distinction is: The ICC has not convicted Netanyahu or Gallant of war crimes. It has found sufficient grounds at this stage of proceedings to issue arrest warrants over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.