New Delhi: The office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has reportedly filed for a “secret” arrest warrant last month for Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday (May 19), Smotrich confirmed it without specifying who informed him of the warrant. The process of seeking warrants is confidential and the minister also did not speak about the ICC’s reasons for the warrant. However, he vowed to fight back.According to the Middle East Eye, which first reported on the arrest warrant, the charges include forced displacement as a crime against humanity and war crime, the transfer of Israel’s own population as a war crime, and persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity.MEE also reported that an evidence review took place on Wednesday last week to examine the possibility of two more warrant applications, including one for national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. However, they have yet to be filed.According to the report, however, Israeli media reports over the weekend claiming the prosecutor’s office had filed five applications for Israeli officials are inaccurate.The application was filed on 2 April. In a letter to the ICC’s deputy prosecutors in March, reported by MEE, the Palestinian mission to the Hague outlined further evidence of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by settlers and Israeli occupation forces, and noted that Israel has failed to prosecute the alleged crimes.“The urgency to take action now cannot be overstated in any way, with the erasure and the destruction of the Palestinian people, as manifested by an illegal occupant, materializing by the day,” the letter read.According to a report by The Times of Israel, Smotrich has called the arrest warrants against Israeli officials “a declaration of war” by the Palestinian Authority.In November 2024, the ICC had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.The decision on Smotrich’s arrest warrant could still be months away. However, if approved by the ICC’s pre-trial chamber, Smotrich would become the third Israeli official wanted by the court and the first ever to receive an arrest warrant for the crime of apartheid.SanctionsSince February 2025, Trump’s administration has imposed financial and visa sanctions on the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Khan, his two deputy prosecutors, eight judges, the UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine, and three Palestinian NGOs in connection with the war crimes probe.All three pre-trial judges who signed off the Netanyahu and Gallant warrants – Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin), Beti Hohler (Slovenia) and Nicolas Guillou (France) – have also been sanctioned by the US.At present, the ICC is also examining an Israeli challenge to its jurisdiction over the Palestine situation, and a separate Israeli complaint, filed on 17 November, which seeks to disqualify the prosecutor over an alleged lack of impartiality.Last year, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway had jointly imposed sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.Meanwhile, in July 2025, Slovenia became the first EU member to declare both ministers persona non grata, while the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain too have imposed their own travel restrictions,.