Former ICC prosecutor details Mossad pressure over 'Israel' war crimes investigation

• Former ICC prosecutor says Mossad pressured her over Palestine probe.
•  Bensouda recounts surveillance, intimidation.
• She says Dutch authorities failed to protect her.
• Trump-era sanctions caused major financial disruption.
• Bensouda urges EU protection for ICC officials.

Former International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has disclosed that the former head of 'Israel'’s Mossad intelligence agency systematically pressured her to abandon an investigation into war crimes in Palestine.

In an interview published on Sunday by Al Jazeera, Bensouda, who led the ICC’s prosecution office from 2012 to 2021, described a coordinated campaign of intimidation, home intrusions, and financial isolation.

She also expressed deep disappointment with her host country, stating she "felt left alone" and "unsupported" due to the Dutch government's failure to protect her.

Home visits, threats from Mossad

According to Bensouda, the intimidation began shortly after she opened a preliminary examination into Palestine in 2015, when unidentified men came directly to her private residence in The Hague.

"They came directly to my house. I got the message that they’re sending." - Fatou Bensouda, former ICC Chief Prosecutor.

The men handed her an envelope containing $500, falsely claiming it was from someone she had previously helped.

Bensouda reported the incident to ICC security and Dutch authorities; subsequent investigators traced telephone numbers associated with the visitors back to 'Israel', though no further action was taken.

She concluded the gesture was an intentional warning to demonstrate that foreign operatives knew her exact address.

Bensouda also detailed a series of meetings with then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, including an encounter at a New York hotel during the UN General Assembly.

She stated the meetings began under the guise of "an attempt to win me over" before hardening into explicit demands to halt the probe.

When asked if Cohen had warned her that 'Israel' could "take care" of her and that proceeding would compromise her family's security, Bensouda confirmed the account. "He did. He did," she stated, adding that she interpreted his words as direct threats against her and her family.

Furthermore, her husband was subjected to surveillance, including unauthorized audio recordings and photographs, ahead of eventual diplomatic penalties.

US sanctions

Bensouda directly linked the intelligence pressure to aggressive diplomatic measures enacted by the United States.

In September 2020, Donald Trump’s first administration slapped heavy economic sanctions on Bensouda and another senior ICC official after the court pursued concurrent investigations into war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and 'Israeli' forces in Palestine.

The sanctions fundamentally upended her personal and professional existence.

Beyond a standard US travel ban, Bensouda’s account with the UN Federal Credit Union was immediately frozen.

Routine daily transactions became impossible; she could no longer transfer funds to ICC member states or book hotel rooms.

Because Dutch banks are subject to US financial regulations, the institution holding her home mortgage abruptly closed her account.

While the ICC registrar and a cooperative Dutch bank eventually arranged a restricted mechanism to process her salary and handle basic necessities, the financial blockade extended internationally, successfully freezing her son's bank account in The Gambia.

Warning EU sanctions

The Biden administration briefly lifted the sanctions in 2021, and Bensouda's successor, Karim Khan, later narrowed the Afghanistan probe to focus exclusively on the Taliban and Islamic State, effectively dropping the US component.

However, upon returning to office, Trump revived the sanctions framework. Under a February 2025 executive order, the US authorized economic and travel sanctions targeting individual ICC workers, recently penalizing Khan, two deputy prosecutors, and eight judges.

Bensouda rejected long-standing criticisms that the ICC disproportionately targets African nations, reminding critics that "it was Africa that came to the ICC" via state-led requests for intervention.

Delivering a keynote address at the Rights Forum in The Hague, Bensouda urged the European Union to actively intervene to protect the court’s operational independence.

She explicitly called on the EU bloc to trigger its blocking statute -a regulation engineered to shield European companies and citizens from the extraterritorial effects of foreign sanctions- to ensure international justice does not disintegrate under political duress.