The US Department of State imposed sanctions on June 5 on four individuals serving as judges on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their involvement with the ICC's investigations into the US and Israel. The sanctions were imposed pursuant to Executive Order No. 14,203, "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court," which President Donald Trump signed on Feb. 6. The order was signed in response to the ICC's warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The stated purpose of the order was to underline the position that the US and Israel are not within the jurisdiction of the ICC under the Rome Statute, and therefore any investigation into the actions of the two countries is invalid.

Amid the massive war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza, there are dissident Russians and dissident Israelis who are courageously protesting, and resisting the consolidation of a pro-genocide consensus. Recent violent and deadly attacks on perceived Israeli or pro-Israel human targets in the US meanwhile point to the dangers of the notion of collective guilt. In Episode 281 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that dissident minorities must not be dismissed as irrelevant, but encouraged and offered solidarity.

Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini on June 1 urged Israel to lift the aid blockade in Gaza.

As Israel escalates its genocide in Gaza and prepares to execute its final cleansing or "transfer" of the populace of the Strip, calls are mounting for humanitarian intervention to protect the Palestinians. In Episode 280 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores the concrete steps already taken by elements of the international community to implement the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine in the Gaza Strip—as well as exploring the critique of humanitarian intervention repeatedly raised in other contexts by Noam Chomsky and the anti-imperialist left.

Amid the hype about how Trump "snubbed" Netanyahu on his Middle East trip come reports that his White House is pushing a plan to relocate some 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya—which is in the midst of a massive human rights crisis. Even while on the ground in Qatar, Trump plugged his relocation scheme for the Gazans, who now face complete ethnic cleansing from the devastated Strip. In Episode 279 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg debunks the notion of a Trump tilt away from Israel, and asks why some "progressives" are joining with paleocons to view massive arms deals with the repressive and arch-reactionary monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar as a good thing. 

Amid growing warnings of starvation, the Israeli military on May 19 allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time in more than 11 weeks. The nine trucks permitted to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing came after the UK, France and Canada threatened to sanction Israel if it did not allow in assistance. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher welcomed the move, but said it was a "drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed." Earlier this year, during the two-month ceasefire that ended in March, nearly 600 trucks entered Gaza every day. (NewsHour, France24, CNN)

United Nations human rights experts urged on May 7 that the international community must act immediately to end the intensifying violence in Gaza.

The experts stated that since the end of the ceasefire, which started on Jan. 19 and ended on March 18, there have been yet harsher attacks on the population in Gaza: "Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza—an outcome with irreversible consequences for our shared humanity and multilateral order."

The Israeli government on May 5 unveiled a new military plan for the Gaza Strip, an operation forebodingly dubbed "Gideon's Chariots" (Merkavot Gideon) after an Old Testament conqueror. Approved unanimously by the security cabinet, the plan calls for the "conquering of Gaza" and retaining the territory indefinitely, an official said. The plan also includes concentrating the Palestinian civilian population in a "sterile area" in the south of the Strip. The official said Israel will give Hamas until the end of US President Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East, which is 10 days from now, to agree to a hostage deal. Otherwise, "Operation Gideon's Chariots will begin with great force and will not end until all its objectives are achieved." The military is already calling up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for the new operation. (TNA, ToI, TML, JNS, DW, BBC News)