Israel continues its intensive efforts to obstruct the work of the International Criminal Court and prevent the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, against the backdrop of the genocide crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, as Tel Aviv continues to challenge the court’s procedures and jurisdiction, which leads to delaying the decision.

This comes in an attempt to thwart the court’s approval of the request of the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor, which he submitted last May, to issue arrest warrants against these Israeli officials. The questioning of the impartiality of Judge Betty Holler, who was recently appointed to the relevant judicial body, also raised other Israeli attempts to influence the course of the investigations.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that "Israel has questioned the impartiality of an International Criminal Court judge who is part of the panel that will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Galant," and the agency noted that "this questioning could lead to further delays in making a decision regarding issuing arrest warrants."

The ICC judges must approve the request for arrest warrants, but the panel has been dragging its feet in making its decision, partly because of several rounds of challenges by Israel to the court’s jurisdiction. Another reason for the delay is that Romanian judge Iulia Motoc last month asked to withdraw from the three-member panel hearing the request for arrest warrants, citing “health reasons.”

Slovenian Judge Betty Holer was chosen to replace her; the Israeli Attorney General's Office commented on Holer's selection in a statement issued on November 11, saying that the Slovenian judge worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the court before being appointed as a judge at the International Criminal Court last December.

“Israel respectfully requests Judge Betty Holler to provide information to clarify whether there are grounds (or not) to reasonably doubt her impartiality,” the statement said. “Israel does not suggest that Judge Holler’s previous employment in the Office of the Prosecutor necessarily or automatically raises a reasonable concern of impartiality. However, the Court’s judges have recognized that previous employment in the Office of the Prosecutor may raise reasonable concerns of bias depending on the circumstances.”

In May, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, filed a request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu, Galant and Hamas leaders had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court has no set timeline, but it has generally taken about three months to rule on arrest warrant requests in previous cases.