The House on Thursday passed legislation that would impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court, making a frontal assault on the tribunal in a rebuke of its move to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes for their offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The bill instructs the president to freeze property assets and deny visas to any foreigners who materially or financially contributed to the court’s efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute a protected person.” Protected persons are defined as all current and former military and government officials of the United States and allies that have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction, such as Israel.

The measure is one of several that were pushed through the House by Republicans last year but died in the Democratic-led Senate, and is now all but certain to be enacted now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and Mr. Trump is taking office on Jan. 20.

Last year, a similar measure drew some bipartisan support in the House but still faced resistance among many Democrats, who joined Republicans in criticizing the I.C.C.’s move to prosecute Israeli leaders but called the sanctions overly broad and ineffective. With Republicans now in charge, the barriers to the bill’s passage appear to have fallen away.

“The I.C.C.’s rogue actions only enable the terrorists who seek to wipe Israel off the map, and they cannot be allowed to stand unchecked,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said on the floor this week. “In November, I promised that if Leader Schumer wouldn’t bring the I.C.C. sanctions bill to the floor, Republicans would. And we’ll soon fulfill that promise and have a vote to support our ally Israel.”

The 243-to-140 vote in the House, in which 45 Democrats joined all Republicans to support the bill, reflected the considerable bipartisan aggravation among lawmakers with the court’s decision to pursue Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity alongside the leaders of Hamas, whose deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, started a bloody backlash in the Gaza Strip.

“America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally,” Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the floor. He accused the court of antisemitism, trying to prevent the Israeli military from being successful and of stymying efforts to release Israeli and American hostages being held by Hamas.

“This bill sends an incredibly important message across the globe,” Mr. Mast added. “Do not get in the way of America or our allies trying to bring our people home. You will be given no quarter, and again, you will certainly not be welcome on American soil.”

The United States has sent Israel shipments of weapons worth billions of dollars since the start of the armed conflict, despite international condemnation of its assault on Gaza and accusations from human rights groups that its actions there are tantamount to genocide. Efforts to broker a cease-fire have eluded the Biden administration. Mr. Trump said this week that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by his inauguration, “all hell will break out in the Middle East.”

Congressional Republicans have been trying to crack down on the court since May, when its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was seeking warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and its defense minister at the time, Yoav Gallant, alongside Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza; Ismail Haniyeh, its Qatar-based chief; and Muhammad Deif, its top military commander. The House first passed a bill to impose sanctions on court officials and their associates just two weeks later.

In November, the court issued warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant and Mr. Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity. By that point, Mr. Sinwar and Mr. Haniyeh had been confirmed as killed by Israeli forces. Israel has also claimed to have killed Mr. Deif.

Proponents of the bill have argued that the sanctions are a necessary rebuke of the court’s move to equate Israel’s leaders with the top brass of a terrorist group like Hamas. They have also insisted that the measure is an important repudiation of what they see as overstepping by the court, since Israel, like the United States, has not consented to its jurisdiction.

The bill is “critically important not just for our friendship with our ally Israel but for our own national security, the protection of our men and women in uniform,” Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas and the author of the bill, said on the floor. He argued that if the United States failed to impose sanctions on the court, U.S. service members could be targeted for their conduct in foreign conflicts.

The I.C.C., Mr. Roy added, “should have no authority over our people, no authority over the prime minister of Israel.”

Most Democrats objected to the legislation, arguing that it was trying to punish too wide a swath of people for the decision.

“Republicans want to sanction the I.C.C. simply because they don’t want the rules to apply to everyone,” said Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. “There is no international right to vengeance, and what we are seeing in Gaza is vengeance.”

The International Criminal Court claims jurisdiction over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide that are committed by citizens of states that have recognized the court or occur in countries that have recognized the court. The Palestinian Territories did so in 2015, a few years after the United Nations admitted Palestine as an observer state.

The United States and Israel were among only seven countries that voted against the creation of the criminal court in 1998. Though both countries later became signatories to its founding document, the Rome Statute, neither country ratified it.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday implored representatives from roughly 50 nations to maintain their military support for Ukraine’s nearly three-year-long war with Russia, saying it would “be crazy to drop the ball now.”

“It’s clear that the new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now, at a time when we have to cooperate even more, rely on one another even more and achieve even greater results together,” Mr. Zelensky said, referring to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump on Jan 20. Mr. Trump has publicly expressed doubt about continuing to assist Ukraine once he takes office.

“I see this as a time of opportunities and renewal in almost three years of full scale war,” the Ukrainian president said.

Mr. Zelensky then added “We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not to keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created.”

His comments came at the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin first convened in the early weeks of the war to discuss Kyiv’s security needs. The group has offered financial assistance, arms, ammunition and other military hardware to Ukraine for use against Russian and North Korean forces.

At the conference on Thursday, Mr. Austin announced a new $500 million military aid package for Ukraine, part of a presidential drawdown authority that the Biden administration, in its final weeks, has been using to maintain the flow of support to Ukraine.

The new aid includes missiles for air defense, air-to-ground munitions, support equipment for F-16 fighter planes and secure communications equipment, the U.S. said.

In his final appearance with the group before the change in U.S. administrations, Mr. Austin touted the coalition’s accomplishments — including pledges of over $126 billion in security assistance to Ukraine — and made an impassioned plea for such support to continue.

“The coalition to support Ukraine must not flinch. It must not falter. And it must not fail,” Mr. Austin told a news conference to close the summit. “Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is all of our security.”

When asked whether he thought the new Trump administration would stick with the coalition, Mr. Austin declined to speculate, saying that was a decision “for the next administration to make.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia, said she hoped that the United States under Mr. Trump would keep up its strong support for Ukraine, but that the E.U. was ready to take over a leadership role if necessary.

The contact group also welcomed its newest member, Cyprus, which broke with Russia — its longtime military benefactor — over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“We have been part of this effort for years, from the beginning,” Lt. Gen. Georgios Tsitsikostas, chief of Cyprus’ National Guard, said in an interview before the meeting opened. “From the very first moment, Cyprus declared its position close to Ukraine, even though that had a cost for us.”

General Tsitsikostas explained that his military has long used Russian equipment and enjoyed good relations with Moscow, but indicated that his country’s support for Kyiv — which has included humanitarian assistance and training Ukrainian soldiers in demining on Cypriot territory — had led to some friction with Russia.

Like many of Russia’s former military clients, Cyprus’ military has begun purchasing NATO-standard arms, the general said, which is part of a global effort by the United States to realign more countries formerly tied to Moscow by establishing closer ties to the U.S. and NATO. Cyprus is a member of the European Union but not of NATO.

With the possible drawing down of support from the United States in a second Trump administration, securing assistance from even more countries like Cyprus is critical for Mr. Zelensky’s war effort just as it is to maintain support from as many countries within the contact group as possible.

“No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map,” Mr. Zelensky said. “That used to depend on a handful of big capitals, but now it’s on all of us on how we work together, how ready we are to own our future, and how well we can convince our partners to stand with us.”

“The more determination we show in defending our interests, the more interest our partners, and especially the U.S., will see it’s good to stay on our side,” he added.

Cassandra Vinograd contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.

The founder of the website used by Dominique Pelicot to invite dozens of men to rape his wife after he’d drugged her was indicted on Thursday in France on myriad charges, including some related to that case.

If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 7.5 million euros, or about $7.7 million.

The site’s founder, Isaac Steidl, 44, was released from jail on Thursday. The investigating judge’s office said he was placed under “judicial supervision,” had to pay a bail of 100,000 euros and was barred from leaving France.

The website he created in 2003, called coco.fr, became notorious in France during the trial of Mr. Pelicot and 50 other men, who were all found guilty last month, mostly for raping Mr. Pelicot’s now ex-wife, Gisèle, while she was heavily sedated.

One of the charges against Mr. Steidl that is related to the Pelicot case is administering an online platform to enable an illicit transaction by an organized gang. Among the other charges he faces are complicity in drug trafficking, complicity in the possession and distribution of child pornography, aggravated pimping and aggravated money laundering.

Mr. Steidl “firmly denies the accusations made against him, and undertakes to cooperate fully to demonstrate his lack of responsibility for the alleged offenses,” his lawyer, Julien Zanatta, told Agence France-Presse.

During the trial, Mr. Pelicot said that he had met all the men in a private chat room on the website called “Without Her knowledge.” Most of the defendants denied ever have seen that particular chat room.

They agreed, however, that they had met him on the site, and then moved the conversation to text messages or Skype to arrange a visit to the Pelicots’ home in southern France, where they joined him in raping his now ex-wife while she was in a deeply drugged state.

The Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement that the website was implicated in more than 23,000 cases in France alone from 2021 to 2024, involving 480 alleged victims. The cases included allegations of sexual abuse of children, pimping, prostitution, rape, drug trafficking, scams and homicides, police and prosecutors said in a statement.

The site was shut down in June after an 18-month investigation that stretched across Europe. Police froze bank accounts in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands and seized 5 million euros, the Paris prosecutor said at the time.

Mr. Steidl’s home in Bulgaria had been searched at the request of French judges over the course of the operation, the prosecutor’s office said.

Mr. Steidl grew up in the southern French province of Var. In April 2023, the French government agreed to his demand to renounce his French citizenship. Last June, after his site was closed, he was interviewed by an investigating judge in Bulgaria, with French law enforcement officials present.

French nonprofit organizations fighting against child abuse, homophobia and illegal online content had been raising alarms about the site for years. A petition calling for it to be shut down was signed by more than 20,000 people.

“The coco site was a den of pedophiles,” said Sophie Antoine, who works on legal issues and advocacy for the French organization Act Against the Prostitution of Children.

Ms. Antoine said her organization often used it to show child-care professionals “how the ‘darknet’ really is in the open.” Signing up was free and required only a name, age and postal code. Once you were logged in, other users could contact you to chat and make propositions — but once you signed off, those chats were immediately erased, she said.

He stepped off a gray jumbo jet to the excited but subdued applause of a few airport employees in neon vests. At least one fellow passenger giddily approached him for a selfie.

Nearly three months after fleeing Mozambique, saying he feared for his life, opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane made a grand return on Thursday to try to claim what he insists is rightfully his: the presidency.

Mozambique is scheduled to inaugurate a new president from the long-governing Frelimo party on Wednesday. Daniel Chapo of Frelimo won with 65 percent of the vote in the October election, according to the nation’s highest court. By the official tally, Mr. Mondlane got just 24 percent.

After several independent election observers identified irregularities in the vote, Mr. Mondlane spent months arguing the race was stolen, calling on his supporters to take to the streets. Some protests have descended into violence, with at least 250 people killed during a police response that human rights groups have called unnecessarily brutal.

Mr. Mondlane’s return comes at a delicate moment for this mineral- and gas-rich nation of 33 million. The government is struggling to address housing and debt crises, and to quell a yearslong insurgency backed by the Islamic State. Regional leaders like South Africa have sent envoys to try to broker a resolution to a political deadlock that has stymied trade and threatens further economic damage.

Yet the outspoken opposition candidate has refused to back down. “I, Venâncio Mondlane, elected president by the Mozambican people,” he said, raising his right hand before a gaggle of news cameras outside of the airport in the capital, Maputo, “swear on my honor to serve Mozambique and Mozambicans.”

About a quarter mile away, thousands of his supporters crowded police barricades, shouting, “The president has arrived! The president has arrived!” beneath a steady drizzle. The police kept the crowd at bay using tear gas.

Filipe Nyusi, the current president, gathered the leaders of the main opposition parties for a meeting on Thursday to discuss solutions — an exercise that some say lacked credibility because Mr. Mondlane was not there. Following the meeting, Mr. Chapo said the parties had agreed to look at making changes to election law and to the constitution “to accommodate the interests of Mozambicans.”

The 50-year-old Mr. Mondlane might appear to some as an election denier and populist troublemaker. But to his supporters, he is a singular figure at a singular moment. Voters across southern Africa, led by a restless young population, have over the past year sharply rebuked former liberation parties at the polls.

Corruption, unemployment, inequality and poor living conditions have sparked widespread anger in Mozambique and around the region at political leaders viewed as out of touch. Mr. Mondlane has seized that wave of discontent to offer a simple message: He would give the country back to the people.

As celebratory crowds swarmed Mr. Mondlane’s motorcade in Maputo on Thursday, witnesses say the police, with little provocation, responded with tear gas and bullets, leaving at least one man dead on the sidewalk with blood gushing from his head. A police spokesman declined to comment on any fatalities, saying they were still gathering information.

“What the people in Mozambique don’t want is Frelimo,” said Francisco Victor Chimene, a 25-year-old driver, standing next to an open-air market where Mr. Mondlane earlier had addressed throngs of his supporters. “What we want is change. We see that Venâncio will change this country.”

Educated in agronomy, Mr. Mondlane has a diverse résumé. He’s worked as a banker, a Pentecostal pastor and a television pundit. His political breakout came in 2013 when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Maputo. He lost the mayoral race again two years ago, but the result was heavily disputed with civil society organizations claiming that there was massive fraud. A court ordered a recount in a major district because of irregularities.

After losing a leadership battle in what was Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, Mr. Mondlane ran for president last year with the support of a smaller party, Podemos. His meteoric rise as a candidate drew global attention, winning him support among right-wing populist figures abroad, even as young, leftist voters rallied behind him at home.

In a video posted to social media during the campaign last year, Mr. Mondlane thanked Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president accused of plotting a coup, and called him “a man of God.”

Mr. Mondlane sees Mr. Bolsonaro “as a pioneering man,” said Jonatas Feitosa, the pastor of a conservative evangelical church in Brazil and friend of Mr. Mondlane. Mr. Bolsonaro styled himself as the antidote to a leftist party that had dominated Brazilian politics for more than a decade.

Frelimo, which has its roots in communism, has governed Mozambique since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975. But the party has since lost the trust of many Mozambicans because of widespread corruption. The government’s violent response to demonstrations after the election was viewed by many as an indication of Frelimo’s desperate attempt to hold onto power.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Mondlane traveled to Portugal, where he met with André Ventura, the president of Chega, the far-right nationalist party that supports stricter immigration measures and has fought against restitutions for former colonies. But Chega has also fashioned itself as a champion of the working class, like Mr. Mondlane.

Mr. Ventura said in an email that his party was hoping to build a common political platform with Mr. Mondlane that focused on “combating corruption and crime, defending family and order, and addressing the collapse of justice and other institutions.”

Mr. Mondlane has not publicly addressed his ties with right-wing figures abroad. But in a country where most voters struggle to find their next meal or a stable home to live in, those ties are of little importance, said Benjamin Francisco Malate, a 38-year-old businessman.

“The reason we are supporting Venâncio is not because he is from the left or the right,” Mr. Malate said. “We’re just supporting the solutions that he presents.”

Some of his proposals include policies that would require significant state intervention, like building three million homes in five years and financing businesses for youth and women.

As he stood on top of a car surrounded by a packed crowd of thousands in Maputo on Thursday, Mr. Mondlane said that if the government went ahead with next Wednesday’s inauguration, the country would have two presidents. “Who runs this country?” Mr. Mondlane shouted into a loudspeaker.

“It is the people,” the crowd replied.

Ana Ionova contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro and Tiago Carrasco from Lisbon.