The international court based in The Hague, Netherlands, has been investigating since 2014 allegations of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and Palestinian militants, and could issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials over their role in the deaths of civilians in the nearly seven-month war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, Johnson argued that President Joe Biden’s administration should oppose any such arrest warrants, which he called “outrageous” and “illegal,” and “use every tool at its disposal to prevent this abomination.” The Louisiana congressman argued that if the U.S. administration does not oppose the alleged warrants, “the ICC could establish and grant itself unprecedented authority to issue arrest warrants for American political, diplomatic, and military leaders.” The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Michael McCaul, told the U.S. news website Axios that they are working on a bill to sanction ICC officials who are investigating the United States and its allies in the international court that tries serious violations of international humanitarian law. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday that the Biden administration does not support the ICC’s investigation into Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and believes the court does not have jurisdiction in the matter. The ICC, founded in 2002 by the Rome Statute, has over 123 member states, and in 2000 the administration of then-U.S. President Democrat Bill Clinton signed its founding treaty but did not submit it to the Senate (the upper house of Congress) for ratification. In 2002, the administration of Republican President George W. Bush withdrew the signature and indicated that it would not proceed with the ratification of the Rome Statute. Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, was quoted by Axios as saying that “the United States should consider whether to remain a signatory” to the Rome Statute. “We need to think about talking to some of the countries that have ratified [the statute] and see whether they want to support this institution,” he added. On Sunday, in a telephone conversation, Benjamin Netanyahu had already asked Joe Biden for help in preventing the ICC from issuing arrest warrants that could target him, as well as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and army chief of staff Herzl Halevi. On April 26, Netanyahu wrote on social media that “the threat to arrest soldiers and leaders of the only democracy in the Middle East and the only Jewish state in the world is outrageous” and would set a “dangerous precedent.” Today, the Israeli prime minister returned to the charge against the ICC, given the possibility that it could issue the arrest warrants this week for alleged war crimes against Palestinian civilians. “This court has no authority over the State of Israel. The possibility of issuing arrest warrants for war crimes for IDF (Israel Defense Forces) commanders and state leaders is a scandal of a historic scale,” he said in a recorded speech. Netanyahu considered the measure another obstacle to the war that Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip and reiterated that, despite the ICC’s attempts, the Rafah area in southern Gaza will be invaded as soon as the civilian population is withdrawn and the war objectives are achieved. According to the Israeli chief executive, the ICC’s purpose is to “paralyze the State of Israel’s ability to defend itself,” which he called “an unprecedented anti-Semitic hate crime.” In 207 days of Israeli warfare in the Gaza Strip, the official death toll has already exceeded 34,500, more than 75% of whom are women and children, according to the local government, and the UN already accused Israel in mid-March of committing a war crime in the Palestinian enclave by depriving the civilian population of food, while other organizations, such as Amnesty International, have denounced “indiscriminate” bombings of the civilian population. “Eighty years after the Holocaust, the international organizations that emerged to prevent another Holocaust are considering denying the Jewish state its right to defend itself. From whom? From those who broke into and continue to work openly to commit another genocide. What nonsense, what a distortion of justice and history,” Netanyahu continued. On October 7 of last year, Israel declared war on the Gaza Strip to “eradicate” Hamas after it had carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory hours earlier, killing 1,163 people, mostly civilians. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) -- in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Israel -- also took 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 are believed to have died in the meantime, according to the latest figures from the Israeli authorities. Israeli government sources, which the Haaretz daily did not identify, said on Monday that the arrest warrants could be delivered this week to Netanyahu, Gallant, and Halevi, and that no other officials would be affected. According to the Israeli newspaper, both the Justice Ministry and the Army’s lawyers are trying to prevent this from happening, and Israel’s allies such as the United States are reportedly interceding with ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to postpone or even prevent the issuance of such court orders. Netanyahu also called on other world leaders today to speak out “firmly” against any action by the ICC. Read Also: USA condemns occupation of building at Columbia University (Portuguese version)