Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 18, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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The Trump administration sanctioned two ICC judges over their involvement in a case against Israel, increasing pressure on the court.
By Humeyra Pamuk and Stephanie van den Berg
WASHINGTON/THE HAGUE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges from the International Criminal Court over their involvement in the court's case against Israel, ratcheting up Washington's pressure campaign against the war tribunal.
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri in November last year for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
The Trump administration had already imposed sanctions on nine ICC judges and prosecutors and threatened to designate the court in its entirety - a move that would be detrimental to its operations - if the ICC did not drop charges against the Israeli leaders.
Washington's other demands on the court are that it formally end an earlier probe of U.S. troops over their actions in Afghanistan and change its founding statute to ensure that it would not pursue a prosecution of Trump and his top officials, a Trump administration official told Reuters last week.
The measures mean the judges cannot travel to the United States or hold any assets there but also make it virtually impossible for them to hold credit cards, making everyday financial transactions and online purchases difficult.
"The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio said the United States was designating ICC judge Gocha Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia and said they had "directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent."
Rubio referred to the magistrates' involvement in voting to reject one of several Israeli legal challenges against the ICC probe into its conduct of the Gaza war earlier this week.
The judges named were part of a panel that refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution's investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following the attack on Israel by militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The ICC said it deplored the new round of sanctions, which is the fourth round of measures this year.
"These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution," it said in a statement, adding that the measures put the international legal order at risk.
The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, but the Palestinian territories were admitted as a member state in 2015.
The ICC is the world's permanent war crimes tribunal with 125 member states, including the entire EU but excluding major powers China, Russia and the United States, among others.
The court's mandate allows it to prosecute individuals for alleged crimes committed by them or nationals under their command on the territory of a member state, including sitting heads of state.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Stephanie Van den Berg and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Hugh Lawson and Andrea Ricci )
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent international tribunal established to prosecute individuals for crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Sanctions are restrictive measures imposed by countries or international organizations to influence or punish a nation or individual for certain behaviors, often related to violations of international law.
War crimes are serious violations of the laws and customs of war, including acts such as intentionally killing civilians, torture, and taking hostages.
A travel ban is a restriction that prevents individuals from entering or leaving a country, often imposed as part of sanctions or legal actions.
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