US says Hamas officials should be killed, or tried in Israel, not by the ICC

The US said it doesn’t believe the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over either Israel or Hamas, as it continues to push back against what the US says is a false equivalency between its ally, Israel, and Hamas, which the US designates a terror organisation.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US didn’t believe Hamas should be brought to justice by the ICC, but “by being killed”, or taken to “an Israeli court”.

“The ICC was established by state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction,” Miller said, adding that the ICC prosecutor had “rushed to seek these arrest warrants”.