The horrific targeting and killing of journalist Amal Khalil on April 22, one of many instances of Israel’s targeting of journalists in Lebanon, adds to a growing body of documented crimes against civilians. This pattern of impunity should compel the Lebanese government to sign on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and pursue accountability for its citizens.
Between October 8, 2023 and November 27, 2024, Israel killed over 4,000 people and injured more than 16,600, mostly civilians, including children, journalists, health workers and first responders. A ceasefire was signed in November 2024, yet Israel violated its terms thousands of times, destroyed villages, and continued killing civilians under the pretext of targeting Hezbollah members. Since the latest escalation on March 2, 2026, Israel has killed over 3,700 people, attacked healthcare workers and facilities, openly targeted journalists, issued illegal evacuation orders forcibly displacing over 1 million civilians, and destroyed dozens of villages.
These actions very likely amount to war crimes as defined by the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Joining the Court could open up pathways to justice for these crimes and others committed by Israel—or potentially by Hezbollah—since 2023, as it would provide an appropriate forum for the investigation and eventually prosecution of implicated officials.
Like most Arab countries, Lebanon has long-refused to join the ICC, largely out of fear of exposing its own actors to prosecution, particularly Hezbollah, whose military involvement in Syria and its conduct of the war against Israel could attract further international scrutiny and expose its members to criminal liability.
What is the ICC?
The Rome Statute was adopted in 1998, and entered into force in 2002 after over 60 states ratified it. Its aim is to end impunity for perpetrators of the most serious international crimes by providing an alternative legal platform for prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
Many of the actions that Israel has been accused of committing in Lebanon since 2023 are crimes covered by the Rome Statute, including intentionally attacking civilians (including journalists and first responders) as well as civilian infrastructure (such as hospitals and bridges); intentionally attacking personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission; and intentionally attacking religious sites and schools; as well as pillaging, taking hostages, and forced displacement, among other crimes.
Countries that join the ICC do not just refer cases to the court; they also commit to treating war crimes and crimes against humanity as serious criminal offenses under national law, and to prosecuting those crimes. The ICC acts in complementarity with states, and intervenes only in cases where national legal systems are unwilling or unable to prosecute these crimes. In Libya, for example, authorities claimed they wanted to prosecute Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam. However, the ICC determined that they were not genuinely willing or able to conduct this prosecution, and took on the case.
There are different ways that cases can reach the ICC: any signatory state can ask the Court to investigate crimes committed on its territory, a situation can be referred to the ICC by the Security Council, or the Court’s Prosecutor can also decide to open an investigation on their own initiative. Victims who have suffered from any of the crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction can also participate in the proceedings and even claim reparations if proceedings lead to a conviction.
How would Lebanon benefit from joining the ICC?
The Lebanese Criminal Code does not cover some of the crimes mentioned in the Rome Statute. For instance, it does not have any provision related to forced displacement, which means that such crimes would remain unpunished, with no clear or straightforward avenue to prosecute them in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s official response to Israel’s actions has been somewhat feeble. The government often files complaints to the UN Security Council over Israeli crimes, documents them, and encourages civil society to continue documentation efforts—recently through the reactivation of the National Commission for the Application of International Humanitarian Law. These steps, while necessary, do not ensure accountability for the incessant violations of international law.
In that context, civil society organizations have been urging the Lebanese state to join the ICC and recognize its jurisdiction over crimes committed in Lebanon, or at least recognize the Court’s jurisdiction over the situation in Lebanon since October 2023, by filing a declaration under Article 12.3 of the Rome Statute. The latter option is what Ukraine opted for after the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, before it fully ratified the Rome Statute in August 2024.
Calls for the government to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC intensified after Israel targeted journalists on October 13, 2023, killing Issam Abdallah and injuring six others. On April 26, 2024, the previous government finally filed a declaration under the Rome Statute’s Article 12.3, only to backtrack on their decision the following month.
What stands against Lebanon joining the ICC?
While the government did not provide an official explanation for this change, the reversal probably stemmed from fears that the Court might broaden its investigations beyond Israeli crimes to include potential crimes committed by Hezbollah and other factions based in Lebanon. Such a scenario would not be far-fetched: when the Palestinian Authority recognized the ICC’s jurisdiction over its territories, it also allowed the ICC to investigate crimes committed by Hamas on October 7 and, as a result, arrest warrants were issued against the group’s leadership.
At the same time, the ICC has been increasingly criticized, with some scholars and governments considering it to be “inappropriately political,” focusing on crimes committed in some countries while ignoring others, and demonstrating, in some cases, “double standards” that leaves it unable to fulfill its promise of accountability for the most heinous crimes.
More recently, the ICC’s ineffectiveness has been highlighted by the weak enforceability of its decisions: if states are not willing to cooperate with the Court, its decisions are difficult to implement. This was the case with the arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes committed during the Gaza genocide. The ICC has also been negatively impacted by President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on the Court and anyone supporting it. Such sanctions may constitute a deterrent for governments who consider becoming a party to the Rome Statute.
Can crimes committed in Lebanon still be prosecuted without the ICC?
Beyond the ICC, victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity can pursue accountability through domestic courts in third countries. This is possible through the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows certain states to prosecute grave crimes regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of those involved.
This is where members of the Lebanese diaspora could play a crucial role. As dual citizens, victims of Israeli violations could ask the courts of their second country of citizenship to investigate and prosecute Israelis for crimes they have committed. This is exactly what French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri recently did in France. Cherri filed a civil lawsuit before France’s War Crimes Unit after his parents were killed in an Israeli strike on the last day of the 2024 war. And with soldiers in the Israeli army often holding other citizenships, this could open the door to many investigations and prosecutions.
An important step to ensure accountability
Lebanon should adopt all necessary steps to ensure accountability for all the crimes committed in its territory. Joining the ICC would constitute an important step toward that goal.
The ICC has so far failed to hold Israeli officials accountable for the crimes they have been committing in Palestine, and specifically for the genocide in Gaza. However, if Lebanon joins the ICC, or at least partially accepts its jurisdiction, it would at least demonstrate willingness to pursue accountability for crimes committed on its territory and against its population.
Lebanon should not be left alone in this endeavor. Accountability is a global mission, and beyond calling on Lebanon to accept the ICC’s jurisdiction, other countries should ensure that existing accountability mechanisms such as the ICC are effective, at the very least through enforcing arrest warrants. The responsibility to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity is a global one, falling on each and every state, and only by ending impunity can there be a chance to stop such heinous atrocities.
Shehrazade El-Hajjar is a former Nonresident Fellow at TIMEP focusing on accountability and legal reform in Lebanon.