The administration of US President Donald Trump has prepared sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC) and could announce the measures soon, according to two sources familiar with the matter, escalating Washington’s campaign against the tribunal after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over crimes in Gaza.

The move would extend the Trump administration’s pressure beyond individual ICC judges and prosecutors to the court as an institution, potentially restricting its access to US financial services and disrupting operations that depend on international transactions.

The administration has openly opposed the ICC and has sought to pressure the court to abandon its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as well as a previous investigation into US troops in Afghanistan.

In July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a campaign aimed at isolating the court and called on other countries to withdraw from the tribunal.

Washington has already imposed sanctions on several ICC judges and prosecutors but has so far stopped short of sanctioning the institution itself.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the sources, preparations for institution-wide sanctions are already underway, although the timing of any announcement remains uncertain.

The Wall Street Journal reported that US officials said the decision could be finalized as soon as this week during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

If implemented, the measures could directly interfere with the ICC’s ability to conduct its work by restricting transactions involving the court and organizations that cooperate with it.

Entity-wide sanctions imposed by the US Treasury would prohibit US citizens and companies from providing funds, goods or services to the ICC without a license from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Banks frequently take a broad approach to US sanctions because of their dependence on access to the American financial system, potentially extending the impact beyond entities directly targeted by the measures.

Among the ICC operations that could be affected are the purchase of information-technology services and insurance, the hiring of investigators and routine financial transactions, including payments to dozens of American employees, according to warnings from the court’s registrar and president.

The escalation follows Trump’s long-standing opposition to the ICC, which resurfaced after his reelection in November 2024 and the court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war on Gaza.

The proposed sanctions would therefore place the United States in a more direct confrontation with an international judicial institution established to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC was established in 2002 and asserts jurisdiction when a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute alleged atrocities itself.

The United States has never been a member of the court.