Trump administration imposes sanctions on two more ICC judges for investigating Israel

The International Criminal Court slammed a "flagrant attack" on its independence on Thursday after the United States imposed sanctions on two more judges over their role in investigating Israeli officials for possible war crimes in Gaza. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an ICC arrest warrant, praised Washington for its "strong action" against the court.

US President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges from the International Criminal Court over their involvement in the court's case against Israel, ratcheting up Washington's pressure campaign against the war tribunal.

In November 2024, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.

The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on nine ICC judges and prosecutors and threatened to designate the court in its entirety - a move that would be detrimental to its operations - if the ICC did not drop its charges against the Israeli leaders.

Washington's other demands on the court are that it formally end an earlier probe of US troops over their actions in Afghanistan and change its founding statute to ensure that it would not pursue a prosecution of Trump and his top officials, a Trump administration official told Reuters last week.

"The ICC has continued to engage in politicised actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC's jurisdiction," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Rubio said the United States was designating ICC judge Gocha Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia and said they had "directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent".

The move was swiftly praised by Israel's Netanyahu, who thanked the Trump administration for its efforts to "confront the scourge of lawfare".

Earlier this year the US administration sanctioned six other judges and the court's prosecutor Karim Khan and his two deputies.

The measures mean the judges cannot travel to the United States or hold any assets there but they also make it virtually impossible for them to hold credit cards, making everyday financial transactions and online purchases difficult.

'Flagrant attack'

Rubio referred to the magistrates' involvement in voting to reject one of several Israeli legal challenges against the ICC probe into its conduct of the Gaza war earlier this week.

Read moreIsrael is committing 'genocide' in Gaza, UN investigators say

The judges named were part of a panel that refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution's investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following the attack on Israel by militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The ICC said it deplored the new round of sanctions, which is the fourth round of measures this year.

"These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution," it said in a statement, adding that the measures put the international legal order at risk.

The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, but the Palestinian territories were admitted as a member state in 2015.

The ICC is the world's permanent war crimes tribunal with 125 member states, including the entire EU but excluding major powers China, Russia and the United States, among others.

The court's mandate allows it to prosecute individuals for alleged crimes committed by them or nationals under their command on the territory of a member state, including sitting heads of state.

Th Netherlands, which hosts the ICC in The Hague, also condemned the sanctions and said international courts should be able to work without interference.

"International courts and tribunals must be able to carry out their mandates unhindered," Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on social media platform X.