Guardian: Mossad chief threatens ICC prosecutor

The former head of Israel's foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, Yossi Cohen, threatened then-International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during secret meetings in 2017 in an attempt to force her to abandon her investigation into alleged war crimes involving Israeli soldiers. The Guardian writes about this with reference to sources.

The investigation, published Tuesday on its front page, alleges that Cohen's secret contacts with Bensouda took place before the former ICC prosecutor decided to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territories.

That investigation, which began in 2021, came to a head last week when Bensouda's successor, Karim Khan, announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's Defense Minister Yoav Galant in connection with war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

The personal participation of the former head of the Mossad in the operation against the ICC, according to a senior Israeli official, was authorized at a high level. Another source familiar with the operation said Cohen acted as Netanyahu's "unofficial envoy" and personally oversaw Mossad's involvement in the country's nearly decade-long campaign to undermine the court's reputation.

The goal of the operation was to compromise Bensouda or to recruit her as a person who would cooperate with Israel.

As the publication’s interlocutors said, Cohen called Bensouda on his personal phone, and one day he suddenly found himself in her way. In the conversation, he mentioned personal incriminating evidence against her husband and said that the investigation against Israel threatens her career and also jeopardizes the safety of her family.

Three of the publication's sources were familiar with Bensouda's official statements to the ICC on this issue. They said she said Cohen pressured her several times not to open a criminal investigation into alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Other high-ranking members of the International Criminal Court also received “threatening hints,” the publication’s interlocutors said.

Cohen did not respond to The Guardian's request for comment. Bensouda declined to comment. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the questions sent by the publication "are replete with many false and unfounded accusations designed to damage the State of Israel."

On May 20, the International Criminal Court announced that it intends to consider issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as three leaders of the radical Hamas group, recognized as terrorist in the United States and the European Union - Ismail Haniyeh, Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in a statement named all of them as complicit in war crimes in the Gaza Strip and Israel since October 7 last year.

The ICC prosecutor accused Israel's leaders of using starvation as a method of warfare, deliberately causing great suffering and killing civilians. The indictment focuses on restricting humanitarian access to Gaza, which prosecutors say is leading to civilian suffering and starvation in the strip.

The Israeli authorities, as well as a number of its allies, in particular the United States, sharply criticized Khan's statement.

Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, however, as many commentators have noted, the possible issuance of arrest warrants, coupled with the decisions of the UN court, which ordered an end to the Israeli offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, could further influence the position of Israel’s international partners and increase pressure on the country’s authorities.