House Republicans are preparing a piece of legislation that would sanction the International Criminal Court should it issue arrest warrants against Israel officials over Israel’s operation against Hamas.

According to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX), the bill is to be a companion bill similar to a Senate bill authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

According to McCaul, he and other Republican lawmakers have reached out to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to let him know that the bill is in the works.

“We want to emphasize to him that going down this road of arrest warrants is a really bad idea and it’s going to blow up the relationship,” he said, adding, “We’re not sure if the arrest warrants are imminent, but it’s sort of a precaution to let them know that, if they do, we have this legislation ready to go. It won’t be put on the floor unless we have to.”

The bill follows reports that the ICC is planning to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli top officials over charges related to the war in Gaza.

Cotton alongside Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), in February, introduced a bill that would sanction officials and associates of the ICC who investigate or prosecute U.S. troops, officials or allies who are not members of the ICC, such as Israel.

Cotton and 10 other Republican senators sent a letter to the ICC on April 24, warning them against issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for Israel’s actions against Hamas.

“We will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States,” the GOP senators warned.

The letter went further to warn that “Issuing arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel would not only be unjustified, it would expose your organization’s hypocrisy and double standards.”

“Your office has not issued arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or any other Iranian official, Syrian President Bashar al Assad or any other Syrian official, or Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh or any other Hamas official. Nor have you issued an arrest warrant for the genocidal General Secretary of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, or any other Chinese official,” the senators added.

The House effort to hold the ICC accountable for prosecuting Israeli officials follows House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) condemnation of the international body’s plan to “issue baseless and illegitimate arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.”

“Such a lawless action by the ICC would directly undermine U.S. national security interests,” Johnson said last month. “If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel, thereby endangering our country’s sovereign authority. Instead of wrongly targeting Israel, the ICC should pursue charges against Iran and its terror proxies, including Hamas, for engaging in horrific war crimes. The Biden Administration must immediately and unequivocally demand that the ICC stand down and the U.S. should use every available tool to prevent such an abomination.