Bezalel Smotrich Orders Immediate Evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar in Judean Desert

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the immediate evacuation of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, a contested Judean Desert site in the strategic E1 corridor between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.

“ABNA24 - Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an immediate order Tuesday to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin community in eastern occupied Al-Quds and forcibly displace all of its Palestinian residents, as a response to reported moves by the International Criminal Court to seek an arrest warrant against him”

ABNA English

Smotrich instructed Hillel Roth, his representative in the Civil Administration, to take “all necessary measures” to carry out the move as soon as possible, as his office said.

ABNA English

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Smotrich framed the evacuation as retaliation against the Palestinian Authority after he said it brought about a request for a secret arrest warrant against him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The Guardian reported that Smotrich said he had ordered the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar to harm the Palestinian Authority, and a senior Palestinian official, Wasel abu Youssef, called the forced evacuation “very dangerous.”

Smotrich told reporters that “the prosecutor submitted a request for arrest warrants,” and he described the ICC’s move as “a declaration of war by a hostile entity against the State of Israel.”

The BBC said the ICC process of seeking warrants is confidential and that the court declined to comment, while Smotrich said he had been told the ICC prosecutor requested a “secret” arrest warrant against him.

Al Jazeera

Smotrich promised to “fight back with a vengeance” and warned the Palestinian Authority that it had “started a war and it will get a war,” while also saying, “Immediately upon the conclusion of my remarks here, we will sign an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar.”

The BBC quoted Palestinian Authority Minister Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, denouncing the evacuation order as “a dangerous escalation in the policy of forcible displacement pursued by the Israeli occupation government against the Palestinian people.”

Multiple outlets tied the Khan al-Ahmar evacuation order to the E1 corridor and settlement contiguity, with the BBC describing a long-term project “through which Israel seeks to establish full territorial contiguity between settlements” that would separate the northern West Bank from its southern part.

The Guardian reported that Smotrich said he ordered the evacuation using his authority as finance minister and as a minister in the defence ministry to harm the Palestinian Authority, which it said exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under agreements with Israel.

The BBC added that Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, and it said an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

In response to the order, the Guardian said the ICC prosecutor’s office declined to comment citing confidentiality, while Smotrich described the court as “antisemitic” and said he had been told the ICC prosecutor “submitted a secret request for an international arrest warrant against me.”