The USA has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights teams that requested the Worldwide Felony Courtroom to analyze Israel over allegations of genocide in Gaza, in accordance with a discover posted Thursday to the US Treasury Division’s web site.
The three teams — the Gaza-based Palestinian Heart for Human Rights and Al Mezan Heart for Human Rights, and the Ramallah-based Al-Haq — have been listed underneath what the Treasury Division stated have been Worldwide Felony Courtroom-related designations.
The step marked a big intensification of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the ICC case towards Israel, increasing Washington’s sanction marketing campaign from courtroom officers to outdoors teams which might be backing the case towards Israel.
The three human rights organizations requested the ICC in November 2023 to analyze Israeli air strikes on densely populated civilian areas of Gaza, the siege of the territory, and the displacement of the inhabitants. A yr later, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former protection chief, Yoav Gallant, in addition to Hamas leaders, for alleged struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
Israel has additionally acted towards al-Haq prior to now, designating it a terrorist group over its alleged hyperlinks to the In style Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist terror group.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed sanctions on ICC judges in addition to its chief prosecutor over the Israeli arrest warrants and a previous determination to open a case into alleged struggle crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has jurisdiction over struggle crimes, crimes towards humanity, and genocide in its 125 member international locations. Some nations, together with the US, China, Russia and Israel, don’t acknowledge its authority.
The sanctions towards Palestinian NGOs have been the most recent in a rising collection of steps that the US has taken towards the Palestinians and their management in latest weeks. Final week, Washington introduced that it was implementing visa bans towards Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and roughly 80 different PA officers, barring them from attending the UN Basic Meeting subsequent month, together with a convention advancing a two-state resolution that’s purported to happen on the sidelines.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas speaks through the United Nations Basic Meeting (UNGA) on the United Nations headquarters in New York Metropolis, September 26, 2024. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Photos by way of AFP)
The US has additionally frozen short-term visas for Gazan youngsters and accompanying adults who’ve been receiving medical remedy for critical accidents sustained within the struggle, following an outcry from far-right, Islamophobic conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who’s shut with the administration.
The US has additionally quietly instituted a blanket freeze on nearly all kinds of visas for candidates who maintain PA-issued passports.
The US sanctions towards the Palestinian teams come days after the world’s greatest tutorial affiliation of genocide students passed a resolution saying the authorized standards have been met to ascertain that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel referred to as the announcement disgraceful and “solely based mostly on Hamas’s marketing campaign of lies.”
Israel launched its marketing campaign within the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 individuals and taking 251 hostages again into Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 64,000 individuals within the Strip have been killed or are presumed lifeless within the combating thus far, although the toll can’t be verified and doesn’t differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and one other 1,600 terrorists inside Israel through the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has stated it seeks to attenuate civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas makes use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields, combating from civilian areas together with houses, hospitals, faculties, and mosques.
Israel’s toll within the floor offensive towards Hamas in Gaza and in army operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 460. The toll consists of two cops and three Protection Ministry civilian contractors.
