Israel’s Ben-Gvir promises to expand settlements despite possible ICC arrest warrant
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is preparing to issue an arrest warrant against him would not deter him from carrying out his political plans, which centre around the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
“I have one clear message to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague: No arrest warrant of any kind will stop me from continuing to work for the people of Israel and the land of Israel,” he said on X.
“The prosecutor in The Hague doesn’t scare me,” he continued. “I’ll do everything I can to protect my people, even if it costs me an arrest warrant.”
“When The Hague is against me, I know I’m on the right path,” he concluded.
The comments follow a report by the The Wall Street Journal that ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is working to issue arrest warrants for Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich due to their role in the expansion of Israeli settlements.
Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas military commander for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’s armed wing, had been killed in an Israeli air strike four months earlier in Gaza.
Palestine Red Crescent receives body of man killed in West Bank
As we reported earlier, a Palestinian man was killed during an Israeli raid on the town of Jit, near Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank. Now, the Palestine Red Crescent says that the body of the man, Jassem Ibrahim al-Sada, has been transferred to the medical organisation by Israeli forces.
It said it had been provided “no information” on the man’s death by Israeli forces.
The man’s cousin, Ahmed, told the AFP news agency that Israeli soldiers had come at dawn and shot him in his home. He said his cousin “was not wanted and had no involvement in any activity”.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The West Bank has seen a surge of deadly violence since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with at least 937 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the territory, according to Health Ministry figures, and at least 34 Israelis killed in the same period.
Mother of 20-year-old killed in Jit says son left to bleed to death
The mother of Jassem Ibrahim al-Sada has given an account of her 20-year-old son’s last moments before he was killed during an Israeli military raid on the town of Jit in the occupied West Bank.
“They opened the door on him, shot him and left him bleeding. They did not allow the ambulance to transport him, and they vandalised the house and abused him,” she said in a video clip posted by a Palestinian journalist and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted family sources as saying that al-Sada was the youngest member of his family and worked as a vendor at a small stall in the village.
