Palestine: International Law and the Courts

Summary

UN and international courts have built a growing legal record accusing Israel of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, while Israel rejects every finding and the US sanctions the judges, prosecutors and rights groups involved.

What it argues

1. Two ICJ advisory opinions

   In July 2024 the ICJ gave an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. In October 2025 it gave a second opinion on Israel's obligations toward the UN, other international organizations and third states operating in the territory. The ICJ has twice set out binding legal obligations on Israel as occupying power, though advisory opinions carry no enforcement mechanism.

2. Genocide case keeps growing

   South Africa's case accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention in Gaza opened in December 2023; the ICJ ordered provisional measures from January 2024. States including Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland and Palestine itself have since filed declarations to intervene, most recently in March 2026; Colombia withdrew its intervention in September 2026. The case keeps drawing fresh state backing nearly three years after it was filed.

3. ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant

   On 21 November 2024 the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, finding reasonable grounds for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity including murder and persecution. The Chamber rejected Israel's challenges to the Court's jurisdiction and to the adequacy of its 2021 notification as premature. The first ICC warrants against a sitting Israeli prime minister and defence minister took effect over Israel's objections.

4. Appeals Chamber upholds the warrants

   On 15 December 2025 the ICC Appeals Chamber rejected, 3-2, Israel's claim that it was never properly notified of the post-October 2023 investigation, keeping the warrants in force. Two dissenting judges said the Pre-Trial Chamber should have examined whether referrals filed after 7 October 2023 created a new situation requiring fresh notice; separate challenges over Palestine's legal status and over Prosecutor Karim Khan's impartiality remain pending. The warrants survive Israel's main procedural challenge, but other jurisdictional fights continue.

5. UN inquiry finds genocide

   In September 2025 the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded genocide is occurring in Gaza, citing four of the five genocidal acts listed in the 1948 Convention. Chair Navi Pillay said the commission has shared thousands of pieces of evidence with the ICC prosecutor and named Netanyahu, Gallant and President Isaac Herzog for inciting genocide. A non-judicial UN body has added a genocide finding that feeds directly into the court proceedings.

6. Israel disputes every finding

   Israel's foreign ministry called the UN inquiry's report "distorted and false" and demanded the commission be abolished. Netanyahu called the Appeals Chamber ruling "a politically motivated attempt to criminalize the Jewish state". Israel rejects the legitimacy of both the UN inquiry and the ICC's jurisdiction over it.

7. US sanctions the court

   In August 2025 the US sanctioned two ICC judges and two prosecutors over the Netanyahu and Gallant warrants, barring them from the US and freezing their assets. After the December 2025 ruling, the US designated two more Appeals Chamber judges, Lordkipanidze and Damdin, for "illegitimate targeting of Israel"; it had already sanctioned Palestinian rights groups, including Al-Haq, in September 2025. Washington is using sanctions against the court's own judges and prosecutors, and against groups that support its Palestine investigation.