The ICC is mulling arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders for allegedly interfering with humanitarian aid meant for Gaza and for what it calls overly aggressive prosecution of the war against Hamas.
The conflict began with coordinated attacks on Israeli citizens by Iran-backed Hamas on Oct. 7. An estimated 1,200 Israeli civilians died that day and 250 more were taken hostage.
A New York Times investigation last December revealed seven locations just across the Gaza border where Israeli women were raped, sexually assaulted and mutilated.
ICC officials say they’re looking into alleged Hamas crimes, too, but Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) is asking why has it has taken so long since the attacks - documented on the terrorists' own video footage - happened seven months ago.
“What this really demonstrates is the hypocrisy of these international organizations like the ICC," he told the Washington Watch program.
Neither Israel nor the U.S. are members of the International Criminal Court.
Senators watched horrific footage
Last December, Israeli officials invited journalists and a bipartisan group of senators to watch a 46-minute collection of scenes from Hamas and from victims who recorded themselves just after the brutal acts were perpetrated against them.
Democrat Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren wiped away tears as they left the room where the video was shown, NBC News reported at the time.
"We saw terrorists celebrating as they murdered children, as they murdered women, as they desecrated the bodies," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told NBC then. "We saw them beheading bodies with knives. We heard audio of terrorists calling their parents, celebrating the people they murdered."
The video recordings, Cruz said, showed evil and depravity that defies description.
“It’s just hypocrisy at its height that they're talking about holding an ally of ours like Israel to account but not even trying to do anything about Hamas at this point when we know we've got the evidence for Hamas,” Ricketts told show host Tony Perkins.
Israel says Hamas, the governing authority for Gaza, steals aid, using it to resupply. Video taken by the Israel Defense Forces last December showed Hamas terrorists stealing aid and beating civilians, according to Israeli television station i24 of Tel Aviv.
The top U.S. diplomat involved with the humanitarian response denied Israel’s claim in February.
“These international organizations are terribly anti-Semitic," Ricketts said. "This is just again one of the ways that the world is trying to attack our ally Israel and we should do everything we can to block this again. This is something we need to continue to resist."
ICC charges can help anti-Israel UN
Ricketts said the ICC’s painting Israel as criminals can be used against Israel as a talking point within another international organization, the United Nations.
“That’s why we need to encourage the Biden administration do the right thing. I was pleased to see that they’ve started vetoing some of the bad ideas that have been put in front of the United Nations. We did skip a vote that was against Israel, and we shouldn’t do that. We should say we are with Israel 100 percent until this terrorist organization called Hamas is destroyed,” he said.
The U.S., one of five nations with veto power at the U.N. Security Council, allowed a U.N. call for a Ramadan ceasefire to go through in March. The measure called for a ceasefire but did not tie it to release of the Hamas-held hostages.
Netanyahu accused the U.S. of “retreating” from what had been a “principled position.”
Ricketts: Hamas has to be destroyed
Ricketts says the U.S. should fully support Netanyahu’s position that Israel will eliminate Hamas.
“This is about destroying a terrorist organization," the Senator said. "There's no way that Israel can allow Hamas to continue to exist. Hamas said shortly after Oct. 7 that they would continue these attacks. This is a terrorist organization that killed civilians, brutally raped women, killed little children."
