The US House of Representatives approved a bill allowing the imposition of sanctions on the International Criminal Court, and also imposes sanctions on the court if it investigates or prosecutes people protected by Washington or its allies.

This comes after the court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Defense Minister, and others.

While some representatives called for sending a strong message of support to Israel and for the International Criminal Court not to prosecute American officials and soldiers in the future, others from both parties opposed ratifying the draft law on the grounds that it harms some of the United States’ allies who cooperate with the court, such as Japan and France.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced about two weeks ago that he had submitted requests to the court to issue arrest warrants on charges of committing war crimes and genocide in connection with the war in Gaza and the attack of last October 7.

Khan said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bear responsibility for crimes against humanity in Gaza, and added that the evidence concluded that Israeli officials systematically deprived Palestinians of the basics of life, and that Netanyahu and Gallant were complicit in causing suffering and starvation of civilians in Gaza. .

On the other hand, Khan said that there are reasonable reasons to believe that both the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and Muhammad Diab Ibrahim Al-Masry, known as Muhammad Al-Deif, the commander-in-chief of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the movement’s military wing, and the head of the movement’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, are responsible for Committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel, as he put it.

Although both the United States and Israel are not members of the International Criminal Court, American officials expressed anger at the court’s approach, especially since it is the first time the court has sought to prosecute an American ally.