WASHINGTON
The State Department will work with Congress to develop an “appropriate response” after the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor applied for arrest warrants for two senior Israeli officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers Tuesday.
“Sen. Risch, in short, let’s look at it. We want to work with you on a bipartisan basis to find an appropriate response. I’m committed to doing that,” Blinken said under questioning from Sen. Jim Risch, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Republican.
“As you say, the devil’s in the details, so let’s see what you got. And we can take it from there,” he added.
Blinken’s comments mark the strongest signal of a shift within the Biden administration after the White House on April 30 pushed back against threats from US lawmakers to retaliate against the Court’s officials, their families and associates if the ICC issues arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
At the time, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterated Washington’s opposition to the ICC’s investigation, but said the Biden administration “would certainly not support judges at the ICC, or anywhere else for that matter, to be intimidated or threatened.”
The Biden administration has maintained that the Court lacks jurisdiction over Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. While Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding document, Palestine acceded in 2015.
The ICC has been leading an investigation since 2021 into potential war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian armed groups dating to 2014. The probe has grown to include Israel’s ongoing war against Gaza, which marks the most serious round of hostilities to date, leaving most of the coastal enclave in ruins.
Karim Khan announced Monday that he has applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Defense Minister Yoav Gallant; the head of Hamas’ Politburo, Ismail Haniyeh; its top official in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif.
The decision on whether any of the warrants will ultimately be issued lies with a panel of three ICC judges which will assess the evidence presented by Khan’s office.
Blinken reiterated his opposition to Khan’s decision, saying it is “extremely wrong-headed. He continued to decry what he called the action’s “shameful equivalence” between Hamas and Israel, and claimed that it would hamper efforts to broker a deal to bring a cease-fire to Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The Hamas and Israeli leaders have been alleged to have committed specific, separate crimes.
Prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday that he has applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Defense Minister Yoav Gallant; the head of Hamas’ Politburo, Ismail Haniyeh; its top official in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif.
The crimes included “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime”, “willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health”, “willful killing”, “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime” and “extermination and/or murder,” he said in a statement.
The trio of Hamas leaders, meanwhile, are alleged to have committed “extermination as a crime against humanity”, “murder as a crime against humanity”, “taking hostages as a war crime”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity”, “torture as a crime against humanity” and other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity.
While the Biden administration has rejected the Court’s jurisdiction over Israel because it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, it lauded the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Like Israel, Russia is also a non-signatory to the Rome Statute.
Israel has waged war on Gaza for more than seven months following a Hamas-led Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel that killed less than 1,200 people.
More than 35,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 79,600 others injured.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
