Former US national security adviser John Bolton has called for the US to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor said he had applied for an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a trio of senior Hamas leaders. 

Bolton wrote on Twitter: “The ICC has proven its fundamental illegitimacy by seeking arrest warrants against Israeli officials in the middle of a war.

"To aid our ally Israel, the US should take steps both in Congress and in the White House to condemn the ICC and impose sanctions, as I have previously suggested.”

He added: “Since 1998, I have condemned the ICC and suggested America impose sanctions against this illegitimate and unaccountable court. The ICC's planned arrest warrants against Israeli officials clearly show the threat it poses to America and our allies.”

British lawyer Karim Khan KC said he was seeking a warrant for the Israeli leaders over accusations that they had engaged in the crime of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war – including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies – and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.

Khan has also applied to the court’s pretrial chamber for three Hamas members: Yahya Sinwar, alleged to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, Mohammed Deif, who leads Hamas’s al-Qassem Brigades, and Ismail Haniyeh, the terror group’s political leader, who is based in Qatar.