Smotrich orders demolition of Khan al-Ahmar in ICC retaliation

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionism party, has signed an evacuation order for Khan al-Ahmar, a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank. The move comes in direct response to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Smotrich himself. At a press conference last month, Smotrich declared the warrants a "declaration of war" and announced the village would be his first target.

The order places the village's 300 residents under immediate threat of displacement. Khan al-Ahmar sits on a hillside overlooking Highway 1, surrounded by Israeli settlements including Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim. Its location is strategically critical: the village lies in the path of the E1 corridor, a long-stalled plan to connect Jerusalem with Maale Adumim and effectively bisect the West Bank from east to west.

A village under pressure for decades

Khan al-Ahmar's residents, members of the Jahalin clan, were originally expelled from the Negev Desert during the 1948 war. They have lived under threat of demolition since 1970, when land was expropriated for Maale Adumim. Over the decades, settlements have expanded around them, cutting off grazing land and access routes. Settlers regularly enter the village at night, damaging property and harassing families, while Israeli authorities rarely intervene.

The village school, built with international funding, now operates only two days a week. The Israeli Finance Ministry has withheld tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, starving the school of funds. "The children, the women, everyone is afraid," said Eid Abu Khamis, a community elder. "We don't know when the bulldozers will arrive. It could happen in the middle of the night."

Relocation plan rejected by residents

Israeli authorities propose relocating residents to Ezzarieh, a Palestinian town on Jerusalem's outskirts, where they would be housed in apartment blocks. Villagers say this would destroy their pastoral way of life. "They want to put us in six-storey apartment buildings, right in the city," said Fatiah, a 26-year-old teacher. "For us, that is completely incompatible with our way of life."

Smotrich has pursued Khan al-Ahmar's demolition since 2011, when he led a legal campaign with Regavim, a settler organisation recently sanctioned by the European Union. Previous governments delayed action under international pressure. This time, the minister has signed the order himself, removing a key bureaucratic hurdle.

What happens next

Demolition could begin at any point. The Israeli military, which administers Area C where the village sits, would carry out the evacuation. International diplomats have warned that destroying Khan al-Ahmar would constitute a war crime and further isolate Israel. The ICC warrants remain active, and the court's prosecutor has signalled continued investigation into settlement expansion. For the residents, the wait continues under the fig trees, watching the ridge where a new settlement neighbourhood rises closer each year.