ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Israeli FM Smotrich; Smotrich Responds by Ordering West Bank Village Evacuation

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on May 19, 2026 that ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan's office has sought an arrest warrant against him — making him the third Israeli official targeted after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whose warrants were issued November 21, 2024. The charges against Smotrich reportedly center on forced displacement of Palestinians, support for settler expansion in the West Bank, and public statements that starving Palestinians in Gaza may be 'justified and moral.' Smotrich called the warrants 'a declaration of war' and vowed to 'fight back with a vengeance.' In direct and defiant response, Smotrich immediately issued an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin Palestinian village of approximately 250 residents located in the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem (West Bank Area C). Khan al-Ahmar has been under Israeli demolition orders since 2018; its evacuation would effectively seal off the contiguous Palestinian territory between Ramallah and Bethlehem and has long been condemned by the EU, UN, and international community as threatening the viability of a two-state solution. The ICC warrant development was reported by Al Jazeera, The National, and Middle East Eye.