The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after they rejected an attempt by Israel to end a war crimes probe in Gaza.
The Hague-based ICC reacted quickly, saying it "strongly rejects" the fresh sanctions it described as "a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had already ordered sanctions on judges and prosecutors in the case, explicitly linked the new measures to a vote Monday in which the two judges sided with the majority and upheld arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
"We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC's jurisdiction," Rubio said in a statement. "We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC's lawfare and overreach," he wrote.
The latest move brings the number of ICC judges sanctioned by the Trump administration to at least eight, along with at least three prosecutors, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
