News - Netanyahu slams US administration for not imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s “surprised and disappointed” that the Biden administration of the won’t support sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking his arrest. He announced this in an interview with Sirius XM radio station, from which Politico published quotes on Wednesday. Netanyahu commented on the statement by John Kirby, the US National Security Council Coordinator For Strategic Communications, who emphasized that the American government does not support the calls of Congress to impose sanctions against the ICC if an arrest warrant is issued for the Israeli PM, and defense minister Yoav Gallant. “The United States said that they would, in fact, back the sanctions bill,” Netanyahu says in the interview. “I thought that was still the American position because there was bipartisan consensus just a few days ago.” “Now you say there’s a question mark,” he told host Morgan Ortagus, a former spokesperson for the State Department in the Trump administration, “and frankly I’m surprised and disappointed.” Also in the interview, Netanyahu defended himself against the ICC’s allegations that he and Israeli authorities purposefully withheld humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since the war began. “We’re putting in half a million tons of food and medicine into Gaza,” he claimed, saying Israel’s enemies were Hamas militants, not the Palestinian people. “There’s plenty of food there—3,000 calories per person. That’s almost 1,000 above the standard that is required.” According to him, Israel is going “out of our way” to protect civilians during the war. Netanyahu said the ICC's charges are "completely false."