ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders

On 21 November 2024, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two senior Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former Minister of Defense of Israel, alleging responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war and genocide. The warrant against Netanyahu is the first against the leader of a Western-backed democratic country for war crimes.

All 125 ICC member states, including France and the United Kingdom, are required to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter the state's territory. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 13 July 2024 but whose death remained unconfirmed at the time. By January 2025, Hamas confirmed Deif's death, and a few weeks later the ICC cancelled the arrest warrant against him.

It has been alleged that an additional arrest warrant for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was requested on 2 April 2026 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the report has not been officially confirmed. Warrants may still be issued against additional Israeli senior IDF officers involved in the Gaza war—an action recommended by a United Nations Commission of Inquiry, which also called for genocide charges to be added to the warrant after finding the Israeli government guilty of multiple violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention.