Report: Bipartisan group of senators trying to convince ICC not to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials

A group of Republican and Democratic senators reportedly held a virtual meeting with top officials from the International Criminal Court this week in an attempt to dissuade the court from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Axios news site quotes sources with “knowledge of the meeting” as saying that the senators — whose identities are not disclosed in the report — used the Wednesday meeting to “voice concerns about how the ICC investigation regarding the war in Gaza is being conducted.”

Israel has also told the US in recent weeks that Palestinian Authority officials may be pushing the ICC to issue warrants against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, according to the report.

The report adds that Israel has warned the US it will retaliate against the PA if the court issues the arrest warrants.

Earlier this week, Axios reported that US Congress members from both parties had warned the ICC that Washington would retaliate against the court if it issues the potential arrest warrants, amid fears that such a move could sink a hostages-for-truce agreement in the works between Israel and Hamas.

The office of the ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has also been investigating Hamas for its October 7 attack on Israel, as well as Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza since then.

An Israeli team has been working for weeks to try to prevent the ICC from issuing arrest warrants, with Netanyahu charging earlier this week that they would be an “unprecedented antisemitic hate crime.”