JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s finance minister has ordered the eviction of a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that has long been a target of Israeli authorities, saying the measure is a response to reports that he may be a target of international war crimes prosecutors. It was not clear whether the International Criminal Court is mulling an arrest warrant for the minister, Bezalel Smotrich. The Hague court said it keeps requests and plans for warrants confidential.But the ICC already has issued arrest warrants for other Israeli figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to face war crimes charges connected to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction but the warrants could make international travel difficult. Smotrich, who heads a far-right religious party and has led an aggressive expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, did not say whether he had been formally informed by the court of the warrant or whether he was merely responding to media reports. Nevertheless, he said attempts to arrest him marked a “declaration of war.”
“From today, any economic or other target that I have the power to harm within the framework of my powers as Minister of Finance and as a minister in the Ministry Defense will be attacked,” he said.
