Donald Trump signs order authorising International Criminal Court sanctions
A day after his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump has slapped sanctions on the ICC over its arrest warrant for Israel’s PM as rockets were fired into Lebanon despite a truce.
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Donald Trump has signed an executive order authorising sanctions against the International Criminal Court, a US official said, after the tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Trump’s order comes two days after he hosted his Israeli counterpart for talks.
Mr Trump’s first administration slapped sanctions on the Hague-based ICC for probing alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan, which Joe Biden later lifted.
It comes after Mr Netanyahu came to Washington bearing an unusual gift – a golden pager just like the ones the Jewish state used to blow up dozens of Hezbollah terrorists.
The pager is mounted with a plaque which pays tribute to Mr Trump.
“To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” the inscription reads.
“That was a great operation,” Mr Trump as he received the token, referring to elaborate plot which involved Israel rigging the pagers so they suddenly exploded, killing more than 30 people and injuring over 3400 others in September.
Mr Netanyahu’s trip to America comes as Israel’s defence minister ordered the army to prepare for the “voluntary” departures of Palestinians from Gaza.
The idea sparked uproar from leaders in the Middle East and beyond, and the Trump administration appeared to walk back some of the suggestions.
Hours later, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to formulate a plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza, which has been ravaged by more than a year of war.
“I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare a plan to enable voluntary departure for Gaza residents,” Katz said, adding they could go “to any country willing to accept them”.
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ISRAEL STRIKES ‘HEZBOLLAH TARGETS’ IN LEBANON DESPITE CEASEFIRE
Israel said late Thursday it had struck two sites in Lebanon that allegedly contained weapons belonging to the Hezbollah group, despite a ceasefire deal.
Israeli forces “conducted a precise strike in Lebanese territory on two military sites that contained Hezbollah weapons, which were in violation of the ceasefire agreement”, the army said on social media.
A fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has been in place since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.
DONALD TRUMP EXPANDS ON GAZA PLAN
US President Donald Trump has shed some light on the intricacies of his plan for the US to lead the reconstruction of Gaza.
Mr Trump took to his Truth Social account to give further details on his bold announcement which sent shockwaves around the world.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Mr Trump wrote.
“The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region. They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free.
“The US, working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.
“No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”
Mr Schumer is not Palestinian.
He is a Jewish Democrat senator from New York who Mr Trump said had “become like a Palestinian” after he criticised the way Israel handled the war.
TRUMP’S AIDES BACKTRACK ON COMMENTS
Donald Trump’s top aides have walked back the US President’s shock bid to take over Gaza and permanently remove its Palestinian residents, suggesting it was instead designed to kick off a new debate about how to secure long-term peace in the Middle East.
A day after Mr Trump declared he wanted America to own the war-torn “hellhole” and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, his press secretary Karoline Leavitt moved to temper his stunning proposal amid widespread opposition from Arab nations.
She said Mr Trump was committed to “temporarily relocating” Gaza’s residents, adding that American taxpayers would not be funding the plan and nor would it necessarily “mean boots on the ground”, although she followed the President’s lead in refusing to rule that out.
“This is an out-of-the-box idea,” Ms Leavitt said, adding that Mr Trump’s “goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people”.
The President’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly told Republican senators – many of whom questioned Mr Trump’s radical plan – that he “doesn’t want to put any US troops on the ground and he doesn’t want to spend any US dollars at all”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said the relocation of Gaza’s 2.2 million people would be temporary in what he termed as a “very generous” offer rather than a “hostile move”.
“Obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” he said.
And Mr Trump’s national secretary adviser Mike Waltz suggested the proposal – which he said the President had been thinking about since Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel that sparked a devastating 15-month war – was merely an opening gambit for peace talks.
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some bold, fresh, new ideas on the table, I don’t think should be criticised in any way,” Mr Waltz said.
“I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions if they don’t like Mr Trump’s solutions.”
But the White House was unable to explain how the US could legally or logistically take over Gaza, with a defence official telling the Wall Street Journal: “Nobody knows what’s happening.”
While Arab nations rebuked Mr Trump’s vision, with Saudi Arabia expressing its “firm and unwavering” commitment to a future Palestinian state”, far-right members of the Israeli government rushed to praise the idea after the President revealed it alongside Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu at the White House.
In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese again refused to offer a “running commentary” on Mr Trump’s extraordinary plan, saying he remained committed to a two-state solution.
But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was more effusive, praising the President as a “big thinker and a deal maker” who he said “genuinely wants to see a chance at peace”.
“Hopefully it can be achieved … What’s gone before us has failed,” he said.
PALESTINIAN GIRL BLASTS TRUMP
A Palestinian girl who survived the war in Gaza by sharing cooking videos on her Instagram profile has lashed out at Mr Trump’s plan to take over her homeland.
Renad, age ten, continually campaigned for a ceasefire throughout the war and was ecstatic when an agreement was reached.
On Thursday, she told her one-million followers that Palestinians will never leave Gaza.
“Purely logically speaking, we have been through a 15-month-long genocide and mass displacement and starvation, etc. We bared all that without the ability to leave Gaza,” she said.
“So you come after we live through all this torment and pain, asking us to leave Gaza? Impossible.’
“If we were patient through those difficult 15 months, we will always be strong in the face of anything coming our way because this country is our country and this land is our land.”
‘VALUABLE’: KUSHNER’S GAZA COMMENTS RESURFACE
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said he would “move the people out and then clean (Gaza) up” a year before the President shocked the world with his audacious plan for the Middle East.
Mr Kushner, who heads a private equity firm with a number of Middle East investors, spoke about Gaza to the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, in February 2024.
“Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods, Mr Kushner said.
“If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?
“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel´s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up …
“But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”
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Originally published as Donald Trump signs order authorising International Criminal Court sanctions