Rubio announces sanctions on ICC officials as US intensifies campaign against the court

The ICC earlier this year found 'reasonable grounds' to believe that Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for war crimes during Israeli military operations in Gaza, including 'starvation as a method of warfare' and 'the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.' The court's pretrial chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and a former defense minister in cases that have inflamed tensions between the United States and its European allies.

Background: The Gaza warrants and the legal dispute

Rubio did not name the individuals targeted in the first round of sanctions but said the designations would freeze any US-based assets and bar American citizens and companies from doing business with the officials. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the list would be published in the Federal Register in the coming days.

The sanctions are the latest escalation in a months-long pressure campaign that has included visa restrictions on court staff and threats to withdraw US cooperation with the ICC's special tribunal on Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Administration officials have also signaled support for legislative efforts in Congress to authorize broader punitive measures against the court.

A wider campaign against the court

Human rights organizations condemned the announcement. Amnesty International said the sanctions amounted to an attack on accountability for war crimes, while Human Rights Watch argued that the measures would shield perpetrators from prosecution. Several Latin American governments, which have been among the court's strongest supporters, issued statements expressing concern and warned that the actions could undermine the global framework for international justice.

At the heart of the dispute is the ICC's assertion of jurisdiction over nationals of states that have not ratified the Rome Statute, including Israel and the United States. Legal scholars have long debated the court's reach, but the latest sanctions appear designed less as a legal challenge than as a political and financial squeeze on an institution Washington views as hostile to its closest Middle East partner.

Global reaction and legal questions

Judge Tomoko Akane of Japan, who presides over one of the court's pretrial chambers handling the Gaza cases, has emerged as a focal point of US criticism in recent weeks. Rubio accused her in a recent interview of presiding over a kangaroo court, language that European officials privately called inflammatory and inappropriate for a sitting secretary of state.

The Trump administration's broader posture toward the ICC was foreshadowed earlier this year when the president signed an executive order authorizing broad sanctions against the court and its personnel. That order has been used as the legal basis for the new designations announced Monday, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was studying the US measures and warned that any attempt to undermine the ICC would carry consequences for transatlantic cooperation. The Netherlands, where the court is headquartered, summoned the US chargé d'affaires to formally protest the sanctions, calling them incompatible with the Dutch government's obligations as host state.

Domestic reaction in Washington was sharply divided. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch praised the sanctions as long overdue, while the ranking Democrat, Jeanne Shaheen, called them a betrayal of the international rules-based order the United States helped build after World War II.

The State Department announced that additional sanctions packages targeting ICC officials are expected in the coming months, suggesting that Monday's announcement is the opening salvo rather than the conclusion of the campaign.