CLAIM: The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over actions taken during the Israel-Hamas war. A panel of three judges will now decide whether to issue the warrants and allow a case to proceed. Such decisions typically take two months.
THE FACTS: Social media users are misrepresenting the warrants’ status, including that of Netanyahu, by claiming that they have already been approved by the ICC.
“BREAKING: The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu,” reads one X post that had received more than 6,400 likes and shares as of Monday.
Another X post, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, states: “Let me get this straight: the ICC just issued arrest warrants against Israeli officials, but has never issued an arrest warrant against say, Bashar al-Assad?! ICC is now completely illegitimate.”
But no warrants have been issued.
Khan said on Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — who he believes are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel. This means that a panel of three judges will now decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow the case to proceed.
The judges typically take two months to make such decisions. A warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, was issued in March 2023 after nearly a month of deliberations. Ousted Sudanese autocrat Omar al-Bashir faced his first of two ICC warrants eight months after it was requested. Neither has been arrested.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution, The Associated Press has reported. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
Netanyahu called Khan’s move a “disgrace” and accused the prosecution of antisemitism, vowing to press ahead with Israel’s war against Hamas militants. Hamas has also denounced the ICC prosecutor’s request to arrest its leaders, saying it “equates the victim with the executioner.”
The ICC was established in 2002 as the permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The U.N. General Assembly endorsed the ICC, but the court is independent. Dozens of countries don’t accept the court’s jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide and other crimes. They include Israel, the United States, Russia and China.
Israel is also facing a South African case in the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top court, accusing Israel of genocide. It denies those charges.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
