The United States has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights groups which have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel for genocide allegations in Gaza, according to a notice published Thursday on the website of the US Treasury department.
The three groups – Palestinian center based on Gaza for human rights and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Al -Haq based in Ramallah – were listed as part of the Treasury Department declared that they are international designations linked to the Criminal Court.
The groups asked the ICC in November 2023 to investigate Israeli air strikes in densely populated civil zones of Gaza, the seat of the territory and the displacement of the population.
A year later, the ICC expressed arrest mandates against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief, Yoav Gallant, as well as a head of Hamas, Ibrahim al-Marsi, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The administration of the American president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the judges of the ICC as well as to his chief prosecutor on Israeli arrest warrants and on a previous decision to open a case on war crimes presumed by American troops in Afghanistan.
The ICC, which was created in 2002, has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in its 125 member countries. Some nations, including the United States, China, Russia and Israel, do not recognize its authority.
Read: ICC issues an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Gaza War Crimes
The American sanctions against Palestinian groups came a few days after the largest university association of genocide specialists in the world adopted a resolution saying that the legal criteria were met to establish that Israel commits a genocide in Gaza.
Israel described the shameful announcement and “entirely based on the Hamas lies campaign”.
The War of Israel against Gaza
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 62,686 people and injured 157,951, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave.
The last deaths increase the total number of aid seekers who have been killed by Israeli fires since the creation of the GHF supported by the United States and Israel at the end of May at 2,095, with more than 15,431 injured.
Last November, the International Criminal Court published arrest mandates against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Yoav Gallant Minister of Defense for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for his war against the enclave. The proposed agreement includes a break in hostilities, increased humanitarian aid and negotiations on the release of captives.
