The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was developing arrest warrants for two Israeli cabinet officials before taking leave amid UN investigation into sexual assault allegations, according to current and former court personnel.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the proceedings target Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, focusing on their involvement in expanding Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. Court personnel told The Wall Street Journal that the decision on pursuing these cases now rests with Khan's two deputy prosecutors, though their intended course of action remains uncertain.
Multiple officials and legal analysts expressed skepticism that the court would advance without a chief prosecutor present, considering the significant political risks such prosecutions could generate. The Wall Street Journal learned that proceeding would intensify the conflict between the ICC and Israel while expanding its focus beyond the Gaza war, which previously prompted the court to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year.
Additional warrants would likely further damage relations with the US, potentially triggering new sanctions from Washington, The Wall Street Journal reported. The court refused to provide commentary on specific proceedings but confirmed its authority to investigate crimes committed within Palestinian territories since 2014, when the Palestinian Authority accepted ICC jurisdiction. Representatives for Smotrich and Ben-Gvir failed to respond to comment requests from The Wall Street Journal.
ICC prosecutors have been evaluating whether Smotrich and Ben-Gvir committed war crimes through promoting West Bank Jewish settlement construction, the current and former officials informed The Wall Street Journal. The Geneva Conventions prohibit states from transferring their populations into territories that are defined in international law as belligerent occupation, although Israel has denied this is the case. Prosecutors are additionally investigating other Israeli officials regarding their roles in West Bank settlement expansion, the current and former officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Israel contends that the prohibition doesn't apply within the West Bank because the territory wasn't legally part of another state when Israeli military forces assumed control during the 1967 Six-Day War and therefore isn't "occupied" under international law definitions. The International Court of Justice, serving as the UN's highest court, regards Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have advocated for Israel's expansion of control throughout the West Bank. Both men reside in West Bank settlements and have advocated for Israel to assume control over the entire territory, The Wall Street Journal noted.
The court is considering cases against these men during a politically challenging period for the institution, according to The Wall Street Journal. The court's arrest warrants issued last year for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, regarding their conduct during the Gaza war, attracted condemnation from the US and sanctions against Khan imposed by the Trump administration. Khan also pursued warrants for three Hamas leaders who have since died in combat or through assassination.
Khan, serving as the court's chief prosecutor and public representative, began leave this month after The Wall Street Journal reported that one of his aides, a lawyer in her 30s, alleged Khan coerced her into sex on multiple occasions and invoked the court's investigations of Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas to pressure her to disavow her accusations. Khan denies engaging in any sexual misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Khan already faces US sanctions, which the ICC states have hampered its operations, The Wall Street Journal learned. The Trump administration is considering whether to impose a second round of sanctions; ICC officials and legal experts worry new warrants against Israeli officials might provoke the US to target the court itself, an action that could cripple the institution by effectively severing it from the US financial system.
"In this political landscape I think both the prosecutor's office and the court has to proceed with some degree of caution," said Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association and an adviser to the ICC on sanctions, speaking to The Wall Street Journal. "The ICC is facing an existential threat."
Under the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, the transfer by an occupying power of its population, either directly or indirectly, into occupied territory constitutes a war crime, The Wall Street Journal reported. Israel provides substantial government support for settlers in the West Bank.
"It's a strong legal argument," Ellis told The Wall Street Journal. "But the political part of this, my God…"
New warrants would increase international pressure on Netanyahu, according to The Wall Street Journal. European governments and Canada have intensified their criticism recently of Israel's handling of the Gaza war, and imposed new sanctions on settlers for violence in the West Bank. President Trump this week called for the war to end "as quickly as possible."
The court charged Netanyahu and Gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity, alleging they ordered Israeli forces to block humanitarian aid for Gaza as a method to defeat Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Netanyahu and Gallant didn't respond to requests for comment from The Wall Street Journal. Israel's defenders argue the government was permitting aid into Gaza following Oct. 7 but that deliveries were disrupted by the war and stolen by Hamas.
ICC judges have ordered that any new warrant applications against Israeli officials or Hamas personnel be filed under seal, the officials told The Wall Street Journal. A court spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.
Khan publicly announced the applications for Netanyahu and Gallant, defying the advice of some senior prosecutors in the office to keep them secret, The Wall Street Journal learned.
As the court was preparing to seek warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over the Gaza war, some ICC officials were arguing that the court should first bring a case over West Bank settlements, current and former officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Officials argued that the court would face less blowback over settlements cases than it would from going after Netanyahu over conduct of the Gaza war, since Western governments have defended Israel's right to strike Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks, the officials told The Wall Street Journal. Western capitals including the US had already sanctioned Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir lead ultranationalist political parties that are important components of Netanyahu's coalition government, The Wall Street Journal reported. Both men have called for Israel to retake Gaza and pushed the monthslong blockade of humanitarian aid into the territory that ended last week.
Smotrich championed a decision by the government this year to convert 13 West Bank neighborhoods that had once been outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, into full-fledged settlements that are entitled to government funding, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"This is another important step on the way to de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said, using the biblical name for the West Bank favored by the far right, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Israel isn't a member of the ICC, and the court's jurisdiction over possible crimes committed by Israeli officials in Judea and Samaria has been a matter of dispute, The Wall Street Journal reported. The court ruled in 2021 that Palestine was a state party to the Rome Statute, and that the court has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed there even though Israel isn't an ICC member.
Israel maintains that its actions in the Palestinian territories don't fall under the jurisdiction of the ICCl.
