ICC denies ‘inaccurate’ report it issued warrants for Smotrich and Ben Gvir

The International Criminal Court denied as “inaccurate” a Sunday report in the Haaretz daily, according to which its chief prosecutor’s office issued arrest warrants for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as three other Israeli officials.

According to the report, which cited a diplomatic source, one of the other warrants would be against a politician and the other two would be against military officials. The specific individuals were not named.

The newspaper first reported that the warrants had been issued already, then changed the story to say that they’d been requested by the office of the chief prosecutor, but were pending approval by judges.

ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet said in a note to journalists that the report was not accurate, and the court “denies the issuance of new arrest warrants in the situation in the state of Palestine.”

Her statement did not deny that they were seeking new warrants.

In the past, the ICC has often issued its arrest warrants secretly and only subsequently made them public, so it would not necessarily be announced even if it were to be approved.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry and the State Attorney’s Office did not respond immediately to requests for comment on the report.

Arrest warrants were issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, after the ICC’s then-chief prosecutor Karim Khan filed a public request for the warrants in May 2024.

Khan alleged at the time that the two leaders were responsible for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity amid Israel’s campaign in Gaza, waged against the Hamas terror group after its invasion, massacres, and hostage-takings on October 7, 2023.

The court had also initially issued warrants for several top Hamas officials, but dropped them after they were killed by Israel during the war. The Haaretz report did not mention any further warrants for leaders from the terror group, which remains the de facto regime of about half the Strip.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Khan had been preparing arrest warrants for Ben Gvir and Smotrich before Khan went on leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He has not been replaced.

The prosecutor reportedly sought the ministers’ arrest over their role in expanding settlements in the West Bank – actions which the International Court of Justice said in July 2024 in an advisory opinion violate the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring civilians to occupied territories.

Jerusalem’s stance is that the opinion was illegitimate since numerous UN resolutions, as well as bilateral Israeli-Palestinian agreements, have established that the correct framework for resolving the conflict should be political, not legal.

Israel also rejects the argument that the Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank, in large part on the basis that the territory — which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, but never annexed — was never a sovereign state.

Israel insists it acts in accordance with international law, in regard to both its West Bank policies and the conduct of its wars.

It notes that when fighting, it takes measures to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation warnings before attacking targets, using precision munitions to strike them, and facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid.

Israel also rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based ICC to arrest or prosecute its leaders, having never joined the international conventions that created it, and argues that the membership of the Palestinian Authority does not grant the ICC jurisdiction either, due to explicit provisions of the Oslo Accords.

The ICC has no enforcement methods and relies on the cooperation of party nations to carry out its warrants.

Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland have all explicitly said they would honor the arrest warrants if Netanyahu traveled to their countries.

Others, including Argentina, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Poland, have said they wouldn’t arrest Netanyahu. Hungary also said it would not arrest Netanyahu – and hosted him, despite the warrant – during the administration of its former prime minister, Viktor Orban.

The United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, has backed Israel, and has even gone so far as to sanction ICC officials involved in the cases against Netanyahu and Gallant.