The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) after its prosecutor Karim Khan applied for an arrest warrant against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza, the BBC reported.
The arrest warrant also includes Hamas leaders, like Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.
The bill -proposed by pro-Israeli Republicans- passed with a majority of Republican support by a vote of 155 out of 247.
Two Republicans cast “present” votes and 42 pro-Israel Democrats crossed the aisle to support the bill.
Although the bill has cleared the House, it is not anticipated to become law.
The bill is likely to be disregarded by Democrats who control the U.S. Senate, where it must pass before being signed into law by the president.
U.S. President Joe Biden has already said that he “strongly opposes” the bill and the government has underlined that it does not support the penalties.
If it becomes law, the proposal will also cancel any U.S. visas held by ICC officials and prohibit them from making property transactions in the U.S.
Some Senate Democrats, like Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, an outspoken supporter of Israel, have suggested that they might back legislation to censure the court.
The Democrats who rejected the proposal overwhelmingly favor Israel, but have criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conservative government. Some Democratic opponents said it would force the U.S. to penalize allied countries that support the ICC.
The bill’s ratification came shortly after U.S. senators asked Netanyahu to give an address to Congress, though the date has yet to be determined.
Khan’s declaration last month sparked uproar from both the Israeli government and Hamas.
Netanyahu described the warrant applications against him and Gallant as a “moral outrage of historic proportions.”
Gallant accused the prosecutor of making a “despicable” connection between Israel and Hamas and seeking to undermine his country’s right to self-defense.
Hamas asked that the warrant application for its leaders be canceled, and it condemned Khan’s attempts “to equate the victim with the executioner.”
If the ICC’s judges issue the arrest warrants, it will be up to its 124 member States, which include the United Kingdom and many other U.S. and Israeli allies, to determine whether or not to implement them.
The White House said in a statement on Monday that, while the ICC prosecutor’s warrant petitions for Israeli leaders were “outrageous,” it opposed penalizing the ICC.
The ICC, established by a UN treaty in 2002, investigates and prosecutes individuals guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute.
Under the Trump administration in 2020, the US slapped sanctions on senior ICC officials, including Khan’s predecessor, when the court began examining suspected war crimes perpetrated by the US and others in the Afghan War.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, at least 36,470 Palestinians have died in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military effort to eliminate Hamas.