Israeli minister threatens to evict Palestinians from West Bank hamlet

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hard-line finance minister, said Tuesday that he had ordered the eviction of Palestinian residents of a West Bank hamlet after learning that the International Criminal Court prosecutor had requested a warrant for his arrest.

The court has not announced any such move against Smotrich and declined to comment on his claim. Nevertheless, Smotrich vowed that he would press forward with his aim to make Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank “irreversible.”

“In the face of a declaration of war, we will respond forcefully,” he said in a statement.

Smotrich said he had been informed that the office of Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, had requested a warrant for his arrest, though he did not specify on what charges. Smotrich did not respond to questions as to how he knew that prosecutors had requested a warrant for his arrest.

For an ICC arrest warrant to be issued, Khan’s office must first ask the court’s judges to sign off on the request. Requests for warrants and warrants alike are often kept secret so as to raise the chances of their targets being detained when they travel internationally.

An ICC spokesperson denied in a written statement that the court had issued any new warrants but did not address whether prosecutors had asked for one for Smotrich.

If the warrant is confirmed, Smotrich would be the third Israeli leader to be subject to arrest warrants by the ICC, which prosecutes the highest violations of international law, including war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The court has already issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defense minister, on charges of war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Both men deny the charges and accuse Khan of bias and conflicts of interest.

Khan himself is currently on leave over accusations of sexual misconduct toward an employee that surfaced last year, after he requested the warrants against the two Israeli leaders.

Smotrich threatened Tuesday to evict the residents of the small Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, whose population has been estimated at roughly 150. Right-wing Israeli leaders have long called to raze the town and expel its residents to make room for the expansion of Jewish settlements in the area.

About 500,000 Israeli settlers live among roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli courts have ruled that the hamlet is illegal under Israeli law because it lacks the proper authorization, allowing the demolition to go ahead. The community, which has lived on the territory for decades, argues Israel rarely issues permits for Palestinians but regularly authorizes new housing for Jewish settlers.

Much of the international community, including the European Union, have backed the Bedouins, arguing that the area is crucial for the contiguity of a future Palestinian state. They have also pushed back against what they call “forced transfers” of Palestinians within the West Bank.

Since becoming a minister more than three years ago, Smotrich has moved to reshape the West Bank. Palestinians hope the territory will become part of an independent Palestinian state, an aspiration that Smotrich has said he wants to “bury.”

Smotrich has called for Israeli dominion over the territory without giving its Palestinian residents the right to vote. Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank already live under a two-tier legal system that some human rights groups have compared to apartheid, a charge sharply disputed by Israel.

As part of that vision, Smotrich has expanded Jewish settlements by advancing new housing and retroactively authorizing Israeli homes that were built illegally. He has also squeezed the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, by depriving it of tax revenues that Israel collects on its behalf.

In other developments:

▪ Israeli forces opened fire on at least two vessels in an aid flotilla sailing towards Gaza on Tuesday, according to video footage and flotilla organizers, but Israel said no live ammunition was used and there were no casualties.

The flotilla was making a renewed attempt to deliver aid to Gaza after earlier missions were intercepted by Israel in international waters.

Video from the flotilla’s livestream showed soldiers firing shots at two of the boats. The type of ammunition fired was not clear.

“At no point was live ammunition fired,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Following multiple warnings, non-lethal means were employed toward the vessels - not toward protesters - as a warning. No protesters were injured during these events,” it added.

The Global Sumud Flotilla later said that all 50 boats in the flotilla had been intercepted in the eastern Mediterranean, with 428 participants from more than 40 countries detained, including 78 Turks.

Israel’s foreign ministry said all 430 activists had been transferred to Israeli vessels and were en route to Israel. It said the activists would be allowed to meet their consular representatives.

It was not immediately clear why Israel and the flotilla offered differing numbers for those on board.

The foreign ministry had said on X on Monday that it “will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza”.

Speaking in Ankara late on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan condemned the intervention against the “voyagers of hope” in the flotilla and called on the international community to act against Israel’s actions.

Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla had set sail for a third time on Thursday from southern Turkey, after earlier attempts to deliver aid to Gaza were intercepted by Israel in international waters.

The group said previously there were 426 people taking part in the flotilla from 39 countries.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday it was imposing sanctions against four people associated with what it described as the “pro-Hamas” flotilla.

Pro-Palestinian activists say Israel and the U.S. wrongly conflate their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for Hamas militants.

Palestinians and international aid bodies say supplies reaching Gaza are still insufficient, despite a ceasefire agreed in October that included guarantees of increased aid.

Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its residents.

▪ The gap between funding pledges and disbursement for Donald Trump’s Gaza rebuilding plan must be closed urgently, the U.S. president’s “Board of Peace” has said in a report, identifying a potential cash crunch in a plan estimated to cost $70 billion.

Trump set up the Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the shattered territory.

The U.N. Security Council has recognized the board, though many major powers have not joined Washington’s main Middle Eastern allies and some middling and smaller states in signing up.

Reuters reported in April that the board had only received a small fraction of the $17 billion pledged by members for Gaza, preventing the president from moving ahead with his plan.

The board denied that report, saying in a statement it was an “execution-focused organization that calls capital as needed” and that there “are no funding constraints.”

In a May 15 report to the United Nations Security Council, viewed by Reuters on Tuesday, the board said that “the gap between commitment (to the Board of Peace) and disbursement must be closed with urgency.”

It added: “Funds committed but not yet disbursed represent the difference between a framework that exists on paper and one that delivers on the ground for the people of Gaza.”

The board also called on countries and organizations that are not part of the Board of Peace to make contributions to Gaza’s reconstruction without delay.

The report did not say how much money it had received or how big the gap was, though it said that the amount pledged remained $17 billion. The Board of Peace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement to Reuters, a Board of Peace official said the board had been consistent in urging U.N. member states and international organizations to fulfill pledges and contribute funding for the reconstruction of Gaza. It did not address the gap in funding pledges to the Board of Peace and disbursement.

Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, is expected to update the Security Council on the report on Thursday, the official said.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are among states to have pledged funds to the board. Others include Morocco, Uzbekistan and Kuwait.

Despite an October ceasefire, Hamas is refusing to lay down its weapons and Israel has kept troops in a large swathe of Gaza while continuing to conduct air strikes.

In its report, the board said that 85% of Gaza buildings and infrastructure had been destroyed and that an estimated 70 million tons of rubble would need to be cleared.

Reuters reported on May 15 that the U.S. was considering asking Israel to give some tax money it is withholding from the Palestinian Authority to the Board of Peace to fund reconstruction.

Many states are hesitant to finance Gaza’s reconstruction through Trump’s board over transparency and oversight concerns, and would rather fund efforts through traditional institutions like the United Nations, European and Asian officials say.

Under the board’s charter, member states would be limited to three-year terms unless they pay $1 billion each to fund the board’s activities and earn permanent membership. It is unclear whether any state has paid the fee.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 12:19 PM.