Incoming Senate Majority Leader Senator John Thune (R-SD) told current Senate Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that he should warn the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it could be hit with sanctions if it issues arrest warrants against Israeli officials — or Thune would make it a top priority for the incoming Senate.
“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,” Thune wrote. “If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress.”
If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis. If Majority Leader Schumer does…
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) November 17, 2024
The House passed a bill last June to impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court after ICC prosecutors equated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister to Hamas terrorist leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, asking for arrest warrants for all five on grounds of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of “systematically depriving civilians in Gaza of ‘objects indispensable to human survival,’” Reuters reported, adding, “Israel is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize its jurisdiction.”
President Joe Biden’s advisers said he was “strongly opposed” to the bill.
By October 23, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), tired of Schumer stalling on the issue, wrote to Schumer, “In a bipartisan vote, the House passed H.R.8282, The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, to sanction employees of the ICC. President Biden condemned the ICC, and you yourself called the ICC’s decision ‘reprehensible’ and promised to negotiate on a sanctions package. Unfortunately, after five months, neither your statements nor those from the Biden-Harris White House have materialized into action.”
As far as the accusations against Israel from the ICC, there have been repeated reports of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid that Israel has let through to Gaza. In May, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated, “The convoys from the Jordanian military that brought the aid in unloaded the aid in Gaza. It was then picked up by a humanitarian implementer for distribution inside Gaza. That aid was intercepted and diverted by Hamas on the ground in Gaza.” “The supplies were the first to be shipped from Jordan to the Palestinian enclave through a newly reopened border crossing authorized by Israel,” The Washington Times noted.
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In September, the Jerusalem Post reported, “Hamas terrorists have confiscated so much humanitarian aid that the terror group is struggling to find space in warehouses to store all of it, according to intercepted communications between Hamas operatives that were played during an episode of N12’s ‘Ulpan Shishi’ on Friday.”
Earlier this month, the New York Post reported, “Hamas terrorists were captured on video taking control of 47 of 100 aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
“We let all those trucks come in, and Hamas’s strategy is to steal, hoard and gouge. That’s what they do,” Netanyahu said in September. “They steal the food. They charge exorbitant prices from the Gazans. And that’s how they continue, [or] they hope to continue, to survive. And we have to take that away from them.”