Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich says ICC is seeking his arrest

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said the international criminal court (ICC) prosecutor has sought a confidential arrest warrant against him, and promised to retaliate by waging a “war” on the Palestinian Authority. He said he had ordered the evacuation of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as part of measures against the authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under agreements with Israel. “The Palestinian Authority has started a war, and it will get a war,” Smotrich told a press conference, reflecting Israeli government anger at what it sees as Palestinian backing for international legal action over the conflict in Gaza . Smotrich said he had ordered the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, using his authority as finance minister and as a minister in the defence ministry, to harm the authority. A senior Palestinian official, Wasel Abu Youssef, said the forced evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar was “very dangerous” and called for a firm international response to stop what he called further crimes. The office of the prosecutor at the ICC declined to comment, citing confidentiality of the process. The ICC has previously said its prosecutor is independent and impartial when selecting situations to investigate. Smotrich did not specify who had informed him of the warrant on Monday evening, and the process of seeking warrants is confidential. He also did not reveal the ICC’s reasons. …