Israel is currently the subject of two separate international legal proceedings over its conduct of the Gaza war — one at the International Court of Justice, one at the International Criminal Court. They are frequently conflated in public discussion, including by people arguing both for and against Israel's conduct. They are, in fact, different courts, addressing different legal questions, at different stages, with different possible outcomes. This article sets out what each actually is.
The ICJ genocide case: state responsibility, not yet decided
In December 2023, South Africa brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice — the UN's principal judicial organ, which rules on disputes between states — alleging Israel's conduct in Gaza violated the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The Court has issued three rounds of provisional (emergency) measures since: in January 2024, unanimously finding Palestinians in Gaza faced a plausible, real, and imminent risk of irreparable harm under the Convention, and ordering Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocidal acts; in March 2024, adding an order requiring Israel to ensure unhindered food access "without delay" as famine conditions developed; and in May 2024, ordering a halt to Israel's Rafah offensive specifically.
It is essential to be precise about what these orders are not: they are not a finding that genocide has occurred. Provisional measures require only that the underlying claim be "plausible" enough to justify emergency protection while the case proceeds — a much lower bar than a final verdict. A ruling on the actual merits — whether genocide was committed — could still be years away. Israel disputes the case's entire premise, arguing its actions constitute a lawful war against an armed group embedded in a civilian population, and continued limited operations in Rafah despite the May 2024 order, arguing its actions didn't meet the threshold the Court's language addressed.
The ICC arrest warrants: individual responsibility, upheld on appeal
Separately, in November 2024, the International Criminal Court's Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alleging the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity including murder and persecution — alongside a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, whom Israel says it had already killed months earlier.
This is a different court from the ICJ, addressing individual criminal responsibility rather than state responsibility, and a different legal question: not whether Israel's conduct as a state meets the definition of genocide, but whether specific individuals committed specific war crimes. Israel — which, like the United States, is not an ICC member state — challenged the warrants' jurisdiction on multiple grounds. The Appeals Chamber's April 2025 ruling sent one procedural question back to the Pre-Trial Chamber for further review, a partial win for Israel, but explicitly declined to suspend the warrants themselves while that review continued. They remain legally in force.
In practice, this has meant Netanyahu weighing travel to any of the ICC's 123 member states — including most of Europe — against the theoretical obligation those states have to execute the warrant. Some European governments have said they would; others, including Germany, have signalled they would not. No arrest has occurred.
What neither proceeding has resolved
Neither case has produced a final, binding determination that Israel or its leaders committed genocide or war crimes. Neither has been dismissed or withdrawn either. Both remain open, contested, and unresolved as of 2026 — which is the honest answer, even though it satisfies neither the position that these proceedings already prove Israel's guilt, nor the position that Israel's procedural objections have discredited them entirely.
Sources
- ICJ — Application of the Genocide Convention (South Africa v. Israel)
- International Criminal Court — Situation in the State of Palestine: Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
- Times of Israel — ICC Rejects Israeli Appeal Against Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
- Al-Haq — ICC Appeals Chamber Decision Concerning Appeals Filed by Israel