The International Criminal Court is serious about arresting Israeli leaders.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior figures on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was the culmination of nearly a decade of secret cyberwarfare waged by Israel against the ICC.
The country has used its intelligence services to spy, exert pressure, spread incriminating material and even threaten the court staff in an attempt to disrupt investigations of crimes in the occupied territories.
According to an investigation conducted by the Guardian newspaper in conjunction with the Israeli publications +972 and Local Call , Israeli intelligence was particularly active in monitoring the activities of Khan and his predecessor Fatou Bensouda. Special services listened to their phone calls, intercepted messages, emails and documents.
Internal intelligence units Shin Bet, Aman Military Intelligence, and the elite cyber intelligence unit 8200 participated in the operations. Intercept data was distributed to relevant government ministries.
The cyber-espionage campaigns were personally supervised by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his closest national security advisers. Some sources even claim that Netanyahu is "obsessed" with spying on and collecting classified information related to the ICC case.
In one case, a group of hackers from the Israel Defense Forces hacked into the email and systems of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haqq, which also actively cooperated with the ICC prosecutors.
In addition, Israeli intelligence agencies have implanted NSO Group's Pegasus spyware on the smartphones of ICC officials and senior Palestinian officials who interacted with the court.
"If materials were passed to the ICC, we needed to know exactly what kind of materials they were, so that we could start our own investigations into the same cases in hindsight and subsequently declare compliance with the principle of complementarity," one of the former intelligence officers explained.
Israeli cyber operations and surveillance of the ICC continued until recent months. According to the intercepts, Prosecutor Khan planned to visit Gaza without Israel's approval to conduct an on-site investigation.
Of course, Israel's illegal activities in cyberspace are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is an unprecedented case when an ICC prosecutor decided to seek arrest warrants for the current leaders of a Western ally country. Khan's decision is believed to have been prompted by an attack by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted about 250 people. As the prosecutor is quoted by the Guardian, "that terrible day on October 7 last year was a turning point" in his attitude to the conflict.
The subsequent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip resulted in massive casualties among the Palestinian population. Local authorities estimate that more than 35,000 people have died. The Gaza Strip is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the blockade and Israel's refusal to allow humanitarian aid to pass through in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
In addition, the intercepted conversations revealed that Khan was allegedly under "tremendous pressure" from the United States to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
To counter Israeli cyber operations, the ICC was forced to adopt a whole range of cybersecurity countermeasures. The court introduced a system of regular scanning of devices for malware, allocated zones free of electronics, and strengthened the physical protection of important objects.
"We have encountered several forms of threats and communications that can be considered as attempts to illegally influence our activities," the ICC representative commented on the situation.
At the same time, Israeli officials deny all the charges.
Nevertheless, independent experts consider the evidence of Israeli cyber espionage against the ICC prosecutors very convincing against the background of the charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The ICC's decision to charge the current prime minister of a Middle Eastern ally with war crimes threatens a serious diplomatic scandal. Against the background of mutual claims, relations between Israel and the Hague Tribunal may finally come to an impasse.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior figures on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was the culmination of nearly a decade of secret cyberwarfare waged by Israel against the ICC.
The country has used its intelligence services to spy, exert pressure, spread incriminating material and even threaten the court staff in an attempt to disrupt investigations of crimes in the occupied territories.
According to an investigation conducted by the Guardian newspaper in conjunction with the Israeli publications +972 and Local Call , Israeli intelligence was particularly active in monitoring the activities of Khan and his predecessor Fatou Bensouda. Special services listened to their phone calls, intercepted messages, emails and documents.
Internal intelligence units Shin Bet, Aman Military Intelligence, and the elite cyber intelligence unit 8200 participated in the operations. Intercept data was distributed to relevant government ministries.
The cyber-espionage campaigns were personally supervised by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his closest national security advisers. Some sources even claim that Netanyahu is "obsessed" with spying on and collecting classified information related to the ICC case.
In one case, a group of hackers from the Israel Defense Forces hacked into the email and systems of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haqq, which also actively cooperated with the ICC prosecutors.
In addition, Israeli intelligence agencies have implanted NSO Group's Pegasus spyware on the smartphones of ICC officials and senior Palestinian officials who interacted with the court.
"If materials were passed to the ICC, we needed to know exactly what kind of materials they were, so that we could start our own investigations into the same cases in hindsight and subsequently declare compliance with the principle of complementarity," one of the former intelligence officers explained.
Israeli cyber operations and surveillance of the ICC continued until recent months. According to the intercepts, Prosecutor Khan planned to visit Gaza without Israel's approval to conduct an on-site investigation.
Of course, Israel's illegal activities in cyberspace are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is an unprecedented case when an ICC prosecutor decided to seek arrest warrants for the current leaders of a Western ally country. Khan's decision is believed to have been prompted by an attack by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted about 250 people. As the prosecutor is quoted by the Guardian, "that terrible day on October 7 last year was a turning point" in his attitude to the conflict.
The subsequent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip resulted in massive casualties among the Palestinian population. Local authorities estimate that more than 35,000 people have died. The Gaza Strip is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the blockade and Israel's refusal to allow humanitarian aid to pass through in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
In addition, the intercepted conversations revealed that Khan was allegedly under "tremendous pressure" from the United States to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
To counter Israeli cyber operations, the ICC was forced to adopt a whole range of cybersecurity countermeasures. The court introduced a system of regular scanning of devices for malware, allocated zones free of electronics, and strengthened the physical protection of important objects.
"We have encountered several forms of threats and communications that can be considered as attempts to illegally influence our activities," the ICC representative commented on the situation.
At the same time, Israeli officials deny all the charges.
Nevertheless, independent experts consider the evidence of Israeli cyber espionage against the ICC prosecutors very convincing against the background of the charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The ICC's decision to charge the current prime minister of a Middle Eastern ally with war crimes threatens a serious diplomatic scandal. Against the background of mutual claims, relations between Israel and the Hague Tribunal may finally come to an impasse.
