The United States is imposing sanctions on four judges at the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, citing what it says are its “illegitimate actions” against the United States and Israel.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio announced the sanctions against Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia on Thursday.

Donald Trump earlier this year ordered officals to draw up sanctions against the court after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, saying they may have committed war crimes.

Two of the sanctioned judges authorised the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and two authorised an ICC investigation into abuses by US personnel in Afghanistan.

“As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel,” Rubio said. “The ICC is politicised and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies.”

The US has already sanctioned the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, leaving him to lose access to his email and his bank accounts, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.

Americans who work for The Hague-based court have been warned that they could be arrested if they set foot on American soil.

The ICC said in a strongly-worded response that it “deplored” the new round of sanctions, which it said “are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 states parties from all corners of the globe.”

“Targeting those working for accountability does nothing to help civilians trapped in conflict. It only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity,” the court said.

According to an analysis by the Volkskrant, the Netherlands runs a particular risk, given that it hosts the ICC and that everyone who has been arrested ends up on Dutch soil.

Although detention is up to the court, everything between Schiphol airport and the 12 ICC cells at Scheveningen jail is the responsibility of the Netherlands. The Netherlands also provides operational support, including security and access to suspects and witnesses

The US and Israel are not members of the ICC.