US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to its arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The order, which freezes assets and enforces travel bans on ICC officials, denounces the tribunal’s probes into alleged war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza as “illegitimate and baseless.”
The move follows Netanyahu’s recent White House visit, during which Trump proposed a controversial plan to “take over” Gaza and relocate Palestinians. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif on November 21.
The US, which is not a member of the ICC, previously sanctioned the court under Trump in 2020, but President Joe Biden lifted them in 2021. While Biden condemned the ICC’s actions against Netanyahu, Senate Democrats recently blocked a bill to sanction the court.
