ICC reportedly seeks secret arrest warrant for Israeli minister Smotrich

A confidential bid for an arrest warrant against Bezalel Smotrich would widen the legal fight between Israel and The Hague, placing a sitting Israeli minister at the center of a court process that is designed to stay hidden unless judges decide otherwise.

The International Criminal Court declined to comment, underscoring how little can be verified publicly when warrant applications are classified as secret or under seal unless a chamber authorizes publication. That rule, adopted by ICC judges in late 2025, means the court can neither confirm nor deny whether Karim Khan’s office has targeted Smotrich, even as speculation spreads across Israeli and diplomatic circles.

Smotrich said he had been informed that the prosecutor had sought a confidential arrest warrant against him. He did not say who told him, did not identify any charge, and described the matter as confidential. He later threatened retaliation by waging a war on the Palestinian Authority, escalating the political stakes around an allegation that is already tied to the West Bank.

The court’s jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine rests on a 5 February 2021 ruling that said its territorial reach extends to Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That ruling matters because Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s authority, while the State of Palestine is a party to the Rome Statute. Any warrant against Smotrich would therefore test not just one minister’s legal exposure, but the ICC’s ability to act inside a dispute Israel says it never accepted.

The reported move would also follow the court’s 21 November 2024 warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, issued alongside a warrant for Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri. A new warrant against Smotrich, who has played a central role in Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank, would deepen pressure on Israel’s leadership and sharpen the question of whether allied governments would face new legal and diplomatic complications if he traveled abroad.

The alleged filing, said to concern war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, could also include apartheid-related allegations. Smotrich’s remarks came alongside reports that he ordered the evacuation and demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, a flashpoint village east of Jerusalem long at the center of settlement and land-control disputes. For the ICC, the secrecy that protects the process also limits public verification, leaving its credibility to rest on decisions that remain sealed until judges choose to open them.