WASHINGTON — On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that places sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to what the White House describes as biased actions against its ally, Israel, and concerns that the U.S. might also be targeted next.

This order states that financial and visa sanctions will be enforced against anyone who aids the ICC in looking into actions involving U.S. citizens or its allies. Additionally, punitive measures will be applied to the family members of these individuals as well.

The ICC, located in The Hague, Netherlands, issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes in Gaza. A warrant was also issued for a senior Hamas leader around the same time.

According to the executive order, the ICC lacks “jurisdiction” over either the United States or Israel.

The actions taken by the ICC against these two nations pose a “dangerous precedent” that threatens both current and former U.S. personnel, including active members of the Armed Forces, putting them at risk of harassment, mistreatment, or even arrest, the order states.

Similar to Israel, the United States is not a signatory to the international treaty that established the ICC. This treaty gives the ICC and its prosecutor powers that the U.S. views as a potential threat to its sovereignty.

Last month, Republican senators attempted to pass a bill imposing sanctions on the ICC, but they faced opposition from Democrats, despite the bill having bipartisan support in the House.

During his first term, Trump previously targeted ICC officials with asset freezes and travel bans over their investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He contended that the ICC had no jurisdiction over America.

The arrest warrants for Israeli leaders last year were met with strong backlash from the U.S.; former President Joe Biden labeled them as “outrageous,” asserting that there was “no equivalence” between Israel and Hamas. The Trump administration had also criticized the ICC for creating a “shameful moral equivalency” between the actions of Israel and Hamas.

In issuing sanctions against the ICC on Thursday, the White House accused the court of attempting to undermine Israel’s and other countries’ rights to self-defense. The White House further alleged that the ICC had a “disproportionate focus” and biased investigations concerning Israel in the Gaza conflict.

This conflict ignited when Hamas militants killed 1,200 individuals in Israel on October 7, 2023, and took approximately 250 hostages into Gaza. The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry reports that over 46,000 Palestinians have died in the ongoing conflict.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, which includes the release of both Hamas-held hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

Netanyahu is presently in the U.S., where he is meeting with lawmakers and had discussions with Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

During his confirmation hearing in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned that the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu could be a way for the court to assert power over other non-member countries, including the United States.

“I think the United States should be very concerned because I believe this is a test run for applying it to American service members and American leaders in the future,” Rubio remarked.

Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy