Israel and its spy agency Mossad have been involved in a nearly decadelong blackmailing campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), using methods of surveillance, hacking, smearing and threatening prosecutors and staff to obstruct its probe into Tel Aviv's war crimes in Palestine, a report said.
The investigation by the Guardian and magazines +972 and Local Call exposed the country's illegitimate efforts to intervene in the court's decision-making process.
Mossad wiretapped ICC officials, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan and his predecessor Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone conversations, e-mails, documents and messages, the Guardian report said.
"I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediately," Khan had said when he announced arrest warrants for Israeli officials and some Hamas members earlier this month.
Netanyahu has taken a close interest in the intelligence operations against the ICC, and was described by one intelligence source as being "obsessed" with intercepts about the case. Overseen by his national security advisers, the efforts involved the domestic spy agency, the Shin Bet, as well as the military’s intelligence directorate, Aman, and cyber-intelligence division, Unit 8200.
Yossi Cohen, former head of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "unofficial messenger," threatened Bensouda, during a series of covert meetings, pressuring her to abandon investigations into Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories," The Guardian said in its report.
That investigation, which began in 2021, culminated last week when Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for the country's actions during the Gaza war.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pretrial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, is something Israel's military and political establishment has long feared, the daily said.
"Cohen’s personal involvement in the operation against the ICC took place when he was the director of the Mossad," it said.
According to the report, a senior Israeli official's actions were sanctioned "at a high level" and justified in light of the court's perceived threat of prosecuting military personnel.
The Mossad's aim was "to compromise the prosecutor or enlist her as someone who would cooperate with Israel’s demands," the UK’s daily said in the report, citing another Israeli source familiar with the threats against Bensouda.
Cohen, described as one of the prime minister's "closest allies" and "unofficial messenger," is said to have led Mossad's role in Israel's nearly decade-long effort to undermine the ICC.
According to four sources cited by The Guardian, Bensouda informed a select group of senior ICC officials about Cohen's efforts to exert pressure on her, raising concerns about the "threatening nature of his behaviour."
Cohen is accused of saying to the ICC prosecutor: "You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family."
"The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor," the report said.
The ICC case goes back to 2015, when Bensouda began a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine, assessing allegations of crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.