• The ICC rejected Israel's appeal to block its investigation into Gaza war crimes.
• This decision affirms the validity of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders Netanyahu and Gallant.
• The ruling confirms no new notification was required for the investigation following the events of October 7, 2023.

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) appeals chamber has officially rejected Israel's attempts to block the ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023. Judges supported an earlier ruling which found that no new situation warranted the prosecutor to issue a fresh notification to Israel, thereby keeping the investigation aligned with the original case opened in 2021, according to Middle East Eye, Anadolu Agency, and Al Jazeera.

The court's decision is significant as it enables the continuity of the investigations into war crimes by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who have been subject to arrest warrants since November 2024. The judges noted that the ongoing investigation includes "the same type of armed conflicts" and the same territories as those previously covered, reinforcing the legal basis for the existing warrants, according to Middle East Eye, Anadolu Agency, and Al Jazeera.

Israel has disputed the ICC's jurisdiction and maintained that it does not consider itself bound by the court's decisions. The nation had argued that events following the October 2023 attacks represented a significant change, thus necessitating a new notification under Article 18 of the Rome Statute. However, the ICC judges dismissed this, confirming that the core investigation parameters remained unchanged and did not require a new procedural notification, as detailed by Middle East Eye, Anadolu Agency, and Al Jazeera.