Middle East Crisis Gaza War

US imposes new sanctions on judges in The Hague

The US imposed sanctions on two more judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Thursday, AFP reports.

– We will not tolerate abuse of power by the ICC that violates US and Israeli sovereignty and wrongly places Americans and Israelis under the ICC's jurisdiction, says Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The sanctions come after the ICC voted against lifting the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who are suspected of war crimes.

The US now has sanctions on at least eight ICC judges and three prosecutors. The ICC calls the sanctions "a flagrant attack" on the court's independence. 

Heavy flooding in Gaza – baby froze to death

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been worsened in recent days by heavy rainfall, reports the BBC.

A baby has died of hypothermia in the wake of the heavy rain and eleven people have died when buildings collapsed.

According to the UN, 55,000 families have been affected by the severe weather and more than 40 shelters have been flooded. A spokesman for the UN agency Unicef, Jonathan Crickx, states that it rained “terribly” heavily during the night to Wednesday.

– I could see parents trying to dry some of the blankets they had. But it has been raining almost constantly for the last four or five days, so it is extremely difficult to keep the children dry, he says.

Now he sees a great risk of children getting sick and, in the worst case, more people dying from hypothermia.