US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order authorising economic and travel sanctions against people who work on International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations of US citizens or US allies, such as Israel.
Trump has slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing the body of abusing Israel and the United States.
Egypt has said Trump’s plan to displace millions of Palestinians from Gaza will “incite a return of fighting”, while Jordan has warned it will spread chaos in the Middle East and jeopardise its peace with Israel.
Trump said Israel will hand over Gaza to the US after the fighting is over and the enclave’s population was resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the country’s military to prepare a plan to allow the “voluntary departure” of Gaza’s residents.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 47,583 people and injured 111,633 others, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The Gaza Government Media Office has updated the death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of people who were missing are now presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
The order accuses the ICC of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”, the White House said.
The move coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US. The ICC in November issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, as well as former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a senior Hamas official, accusing them of war crimes in the war in Gaza.
Trump’s order stated The Hague-based court had “abused its power” by issuing the warrants for the Israelis.
The White House defined Israel as “a democratic state whose military strictly adheres to the laws of war”.
“The actions taken by the International Criminal Court against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent,” it continued, accusing the ICC of “malign behaviour that threatens to violate American sovereignty and undermine national security and foreign policy”.
The names of individuals targeted by the sanctions were not immediately released, but previous sanctions issued during Trump’s first term were aimed at the prosecutor and her aide who ran an ICC investigation into alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
The ICC said that the order seeks to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work,” and pledged to “continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world”.
“We call on our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights,” it added.
The move also provoked expressions of alarm from around the world.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the sanctions “undermine the international criminal justice system as a whole”. — With AJ Inputs
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