U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who testified before Congress amid protests on Tuesday, claimed that a cease-fire in Gaza was still possible, but the recent arrest order by the World Court was allegedly hindering diplomatic efforts.
Testifying before Congress, Blinken was repeatedly disrupted by protesters critical of U.S. complicity in Israel's ongoing war crimes in Gaza, where over 35,000 Palestinians were killed. Several were evicted after shouting that he was a "war criminal," but protesters – many showing symbolically reddened hands – were later allowed to sit silently behind him.
Blinken credited Qatar and Egypt with assisting the "extensive effort" to secure a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in return for the release of hostages.
But CIA Director Bill Burns, the U.S. point man in the talks, left the region empty-handed some 10 days ago.
"I think we've come very, very close on a couple of occasions," Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the first of four appearances before Congress planned through Wednesday.
"We remain at it every single day. I think that there's still a possibility," Blinken said.
"But it's challenged by a number of events and I have to say, yes the extremely wrongheaded decision by the ICC prosecutor yesterday – the shameful equivalence implied between Hamas and the leadership of Israel – I think that only complicates the prospects for getting such an agreement," Blinken said.
Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on Monday said he had applied for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Hamas chiefs.
Republican lawmakers urged Biden to take action against the ICC. Previous president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on an earlier prosecutor, a step reversed by Biden after he took office.
Senator Lindsey Graham pointed to a previous probe by the ICC, of which the United States is not a member, into U.S. military actions in Afghanistan.
"If they'll do this to Israel, where next?" Graham said.
Blinken did not commit to sanctions, saying repeatedly that the Biden administration was looking at an "appropriate response" to the ICC.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier said that the United States would keep cooperating with the ICC on a separate probe into alleged war crimes by Russia in Ukraine.
Israel's attacks in Gaza killed at least 35,647 people, also mostly civilians.
