Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday he had been told the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court sought a confidential arrest warrant against him, and he framed that development as a casus belli against the Palestinian Authority (PA).
At a press conference Smotrich said he intended to respond forcefully. "The Palestinian Authority has started a war, and it will get a war," he said, linking what he described as Palestinian backing for international legal action over the Gaza conflict to steps he said he would take to harm the PA.
As part of those measures, Smotrich said he had ordered the evacuation of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He said he used his authority both as finance minister and as a minister in the defence ministry to carry out the action.
Reactions from Palestinian officials were swift. Senior Palestinian official Wasel Abu Youssef described the evacuation decision as "very dangerous," and said a firm international stance was required to prevent what he called further crimes. The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under arrangements with Israel.
The prosecutor's office at the ICC did not confirm or deny Smotrich's allegation about a confidential arrest-warrant request, saying only that the process is confidential. The ICC has previously said its prosecutor is independent and impartial when choosing situations to investigate; the court itself declined to comment on Smotrich's charge that it was "antisemitic."
Smotrich said he had been informed on Monday evening that the ICC prosecutor had "submitted a secret request for an international arrest warrant against me." He did not identify who informed him of this, and he did not provide the legal grounds the ICC prosecutor might have cited. The court's procedures for seeking warrants are confidential, and under recent changes such applications to judges are kept sealed while judges decide whether to issue warrants.
Explaining his stance, Smotrich said Israel would not accept what he called "hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that consistently stand against the State of Israel, against our biblical, historical, and legal rights in our homeland, and against our right and duty to self-defense and security." Israel is not a member of the ICC and does not recognise the court's jurisdiction; the Palestinian territories were admitted as an ICC member state in 2015, which the ICC has said allows it to examine alleged crimes in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Under the court's framework, prosecutors may apply to judges for arrest warrants; judges must find there are reasonable grounds to conclude a suspect has committed crimes within the ICC's jurisdiction before issuing a warrant. Smotrich did not disclose any particulars of the alleged request, and the ICC reiterated that the confidentiality rules limit public comment on pending processes.
Smotrich's announcement follows a history of tensions between Israeli officials and the court. In November 2024 the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant, as well as for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Smotrich warned that attempts "to force upon us a policy of security suicide through sanctions and arrest warrants will not succeed."
There are potential diplomatic reverberations from another request for an arrest warrant against a sitting Israeli official. The article indicated that such a request, if accurate, could prompt additional pushback against the court by key Israeli allies, noting that U.S. opposition to an arrest warrant for Netanyahu has been bipartisan and that under the previous U.S. administration sanctions were imposed against 11 ICC judges and prosecutors involved in what was termed "the Palestine situation."
On the international sanctions front, Britain and four other nations last year imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right Israeli cabinet minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Smotrich has been outspoken in favour of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and has pushed for permanent Israeli control over Gaza and re-establishment of Jewish settlements there that Israel abandoned in 2005 - positions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.
Smotrich defended his settlement agenda in his remarks, saying: "We are ... turning the settlement enterprise into something irreversible. I am proud of all this. Very proud."
The backdrop to these developments remains the two-year Gaza war, which began after an October 7, 2023 raid by Hamas militants and the subsequent heavy Israeli military response.
At the time of Smotrich's announcement, key facts about the alleged ICC request remained unclear: who had informed him of the prosecutor's action, what specific allegations—if any—were involved, and what the prosecutor's legal basis would be. The ICC's confidentiality rules and its prior statements on prosecutorial independence limit the amount of public information available while the court's internal processes continue.