Ms Albanese has served since May 2022 as special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

An outspoken opponent of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, she recently published a report which named businesses, charities and universities she said had “profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide”.

Announcing the sanctions yesterday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said they were being imposed pursuant to Trump’s earlier executive order targeting the International Criminal Court.

Ms Albanese has “directly engaged” with the court “in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries”, he said.

“Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries,” he added.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders in November 2024, though all of the wanted Hamas leaders have since been assassinated by Israel.

Judges concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mr Rubio said the warrants were issued “without a legitimate basis”.

He also accused Ms Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against “major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality” in an apparent reference to her report.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” he concluded.

Amnesty International has led condemnation of the US move, which it described as a “shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice”.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said: “Following the recent sanctions against the International Criminal Court, the measures announced today are a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on international law and its efforts to protect the Israeli government from accountability at all costs.

“They are the latest in a series of Trump administration policies seeking to intimidate and silence those that dare speak out for Palestinians’ human rights.

“Instead of attacking the special rapporteur and further undermining the rule-based order, the US government should focus on putting an end to its unconditional support to Israel, enabling total impunity for its crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Ms Callamard also urged the UN and governments around the world to “do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese and more generally to protect the work and independence of special rapporteurs”.