Israel says submits challenge to ICC arrest warrant request for Netanyahu

JERUSALEM, undefined — Israel said on Friday it had submitted an "official challenge" to a request from the International Criminal Court prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in May requested the court issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel has waged war in Gaza against Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

"The State of Israel submitted today its official challenge to the ICC's jurisdiction, as well as the legality of the prosecutor's requests for arrest warrants against Israel's prime minister and minister of defence," foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on X.

Khan also sought warrants against top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The prosecutor dropped the application for Haniyeh on August 2 "because of the changed circumstances caused by Mr Haniyeh's death" in Tehran on July 31, the ICC said in a statement this month.

According to Israel, Deif was killed by a strike on July 13 in southern Gaza, though Hamas denies he is dead.

The court is still weighing Khan's application for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant.

In August, Khan's office urged the court to take action "with utmost urgency", saying that it was "settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation".

Hamas's October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.

Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which deals with disputes between