The US State Department has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights groups that asked the International Criminal Court to investigate and arrest Israeli leaders over accusations of war crimes in Gaza.
Late last year the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a now deceased senior Hamas official.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the US will sanction the three NGOs – Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – for engaging in what he called the ICC’s “illegitimate targeting of Israel.”
The organizations “have directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent,” Rubio said in a statement posted to the US Treasury Department’s website.
The US sanctions come days after the world’s leading genocide scholars said Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. Israel rejected the accusation, saying it is based on a “campaign of lies” by Hamas. It has previously rejected other accusations it is carrying out genocide or war crimes.
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