‘Politics in the guise of law’: Israel slams ICC ruling allowing Gaza probe to proceed

"Israel on Monday slammed a ruling by the International Criminal Court upholding a decision to allow the investigation of alleged crimes in the war on Hamas in Gaza as part of its ‘Palestine’ probe, opened in 2021.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it rejected the Appeals Chamber’s decision to deny Jerusalem the right to formal notice of a new criminal probe, ‘as demanded by the principle of complementarity particularly with regard to a democratic state with an independent and robust judicial system.’

‘This is yet another example of the ongoing politicization of the ICC and its blatant disregard for the sovereign rights of non-party States, as well as its own obligations under the Rome Statute,’ the statement added.

‘This is what politics in the guise of ‘International Law’ looks like,’ the ministry concluded, noting that the decision of the Appeal Chamber was handed down by a narrow majority of three out of five justices.

The ruling states that the probe into the war launched following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre falls within the ICC prosecutor’s existing investigation into alleged crimes committed across Gaza, Judea and Samaria since 2014, which has been ongoing for some four years.

Judges upheld a ruling that there was no ‘new situation’ or ‘substantial change’ requiring Israel to be notified, as the alleged crimes involve the same territory, conflicts and parties already under the ICC’s scrutiny.

The two dissenting judges, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza and Solomy Balungi Bossa, argued that the lower ruling contained procedural errors as it failed to properly address the Jewish state’s claim that post–Oct. 7 referrals by ICC state parties triggered a new, legally distinct situation..."