The International Criminal Court issued sealed arrest warrants for several Israeli officials, which means the number of officials and their identities have not been disclosed.

The warrants, whose timing of when they were issued is also remains unknown, might target two Israeli politicians and two military officials, according to a diplomatic source.

Arrest warrants were issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in November 2024. Prosecutors at the ICC have since weighed issuing warrants for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The ICC’s constitution allows it to issue arrest warrants without notifying the targets of the warrants, according to Eliav Lieblich, professor of public international law at Tel Aviv University.

“The considerations for publishing the warrants in public, as was done in the cases of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu and Gallant, is deterrence,” he explained. “The considerations for secrecy increase the chance that the person will reach the place where he will be arrested,” because Netanyahu and Gallant have thus far avoided arrest by not traveling to countries that would arrest them and hand them over to The Hague.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the ICC, had planned to issue arrest warrants for Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in light of settlement expansion in the West Bank. The court was mulling over whether that violated the Geneva Convention’s prohibition against transfer of their population into their occupied territories.

However, Khan has been placed on temporary leave due to accusations of sexual assault by a female staff member. He has since been accused of attempting to deflect attention from the scandal by targeting the prime minister and his defense minister. It has also since been revealed that Qatar and private British intelligence agencies teamed up to peddle an influence campaign targeting the ICC prosecutor that resulted in the issuance of the arrest warrants, with the ultimate goal of assisting Hamas’ aims.

After the Oct. 7 attack, Slovenia, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Spain and New Zealand banned the two politicians from their countries.