U.S. senator vows legislation to punish nations who work with ICC after Israel arrest warrants

Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham vowed to introduce legislation Thursday that would punish any nation that cooperates with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials.

Graham said in a lengthy X post that it would be "a huge mistake" for the U.S. to not react strongly against the action, saying that without doing so the U.S. would be "conceding that they have jurisdiction over the United States."

"We cannot let the world believe for a moment that this is a legitimate exercise of jurisdiction by the Court against Israel because to do so means we could be next," he said.

"I will be introducing legislation that puts other countries on notice-If you aid and abet the ICC after their action against the State of Israel, you can expect consequences from the United States. Any nation that joins with the ICC after this outrage is a partner in a reckless act that tramples the rule of law," he added.

The Hague-based court announced the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant earlier in the day "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024," when ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought the warrants.

In doing so, it also unanimously rejected Israel's challenges to jurisdiction under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute.

The court said it "found reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant "bear criminal responsibility" for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."

The warrants come as Israel's genocidal offensive in the Gaza Strip recently entered its second year, having already killed some 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.