BRITAIN will be able to challenge the right of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, judges have said.

The challenge was lodged on June 10 in secret but was made public on Thursday evening ahead of the general election.

Britain, which is an ICC member state, claims that the court does not have jurisdiction over Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant.

It has requested written observations on whether “the court can exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals [under] the Oslo Accords.”

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan accused the pair of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and issued arrest warrants in May.

He said Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant were suspected of crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

At the time, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised the court for seeking warrants for both Mr Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, arguing that there was no “moral equivalence” between the two sides.

The court will now consider the challenge, which will delay the decisions on whether to issue the warrants until at least the end of July.

Britain has until July 12 to submit its full claim.

The ICC has had an ongoing investigation into any alleged crimes committed in Palestine and Israel by the other since 2021.

Judges ruled at the time that the court has jurisdiction since the Palestinian authorities signed up to the court in 2015 after being granted United Nations observer state status.

But the decision left a ruling on the interpretation of the 1993 Oslo Accords regarding Palestinian jurisdiction over Israeli nationals for a later stage in the proceedings.

Britain is now arguing that the Palestinian authorities cannot have jurisdiction over Israeli nationals under the Oslo Accords, and so it cannot transfer that jurisdiction over to the ICC to prosecute Israelis. The government’s decision to try to shield the Israeli leaders from accountability will be controversial.

Mr Khan had argued that he has jurisdiction over crimes committed by nationals of non-state parties (Israel has not signed the court’s founding statute) in the territory of a party.

The decision was supported by a panel of international legal experts, including several from Britain.