(October 29, 2024)
Delays in the Palestine investigation trace back to 2015 when former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda initiated a preliminary examination. Although the investigation met the necessary criteria in 2019, it was postponed due to jurisdiction debates over Palestinian territories. The formal investigation began in March 2021, yet no meaningful progress has been made, further delaying requests against Netanyahu and Gallant.
(May 28, 2024)
Thanks to their comprehensive access to Palestinian telecoms infrastructure, the sources said, intelligence operatives could capture the calls without installing spyware on the ICC official’s devices.
“If Fatou Bensouda spoke to any person in the West Bank or Gaza, then that phone call would enter [intercept] systems,” one source said. Another said there was no hesitation internally over spying on the prosecutor, adding: “With Bensouda, she’s black and African, so who cares?”
The surveillance system did not capture calls between ICC officials and anyone outside Palestine. However, multiple sources said the system required the active selection of the overseas phone numbers of ICC officials whose calls Israeli intelligence agencies decided to listen to.
According to one Israeli source, a large whiteboard in an Israeli intelligence department contained the names of about 60 people under surveillance – half of them Palestinians and half from other countries, including UN officials and ICC personnel.
In The Hague, Bensouda and her senior staff were alerted by security advisers and via diplomatic channels that Israel was monitoring their work.
(May 28, 2024)
Die Haftbefehle für Benjamin Netanyahu und Yoav Gallant, die der internationale Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) letzte Woche ausgeschrieben hatte, beziehen sich zwar auf Verbrechen, die die israelische Führung während des neuen Gaza-Krieges begangen haben soll, die Untersuchungen begannen aber bereits 2015.
Damals eröffnete die damalige Chefanklägerin des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs, Fatou Bensouda, die Überprüfung von Vorwürfen gegen Einzelpersonen im Gazastreifen, im Westjordanland und in Ostjerusalem.
(May 28, 2024)
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
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.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.
(…)
After the surprise meeting with Kabila and Bensouda in New York, Cohen repeatedly phoned the chief prosecutor and sought meetings with her, three sources recalled. According to two people familiar with the situation, at one stage Bensouda asked Cohen how he had obtained her phone number, to which he replied: “Did you forget what I do for a living?”
Saudi Arabia is reportedly demanding that the White House unfreeze some weapons deals from the Trump administration that were put on hold when US President Joe Biden took office.
Saudi Arabia is also reportedly seeking a defense treaty with the US, akin to NATO, and US approval for a civilian nuclear program in exchange for full normalization with Israel.
„One Friday, I received a call from Arnon and he said to me, ‚Speak to Yossi Cohen and tell him that Sara likes him,'“ Klein continued. „‚Tell Yossi what Sara says about him.‘ Arnon told him that he spoke with the Netanyahus. And then Arnon met with [then-Mossad chief] Tamir Pardo on Friday afternoon. He told Pardo that he spoke to the Netanyahus and they both approved this appointment, and Tamir told Milchan: ‘You did something bad for the State of Israel.’”
Surprisingly, Gertler submitted the documents that got him into trouble while he was receiving legal counsel from top lawyers in Israel. In the arbitration, Gertler is represented by attorneys Dori Klagsbald and Boaz Ben Zur. The latter is also former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorney in the so-called Case 4000, in which Netanyahu is accused of offering favors for positive media coverage.
The Mossad uses foreign citizens for its operations in Iran and elsewhere. Israeli and international media outlets have reported this in the past. We can presume these people are well paid. Iranian spokespeople call them “mercenaries.” But when the head of the Mossad himself reveals this, he reinforces the false impression that Israel’s intelligence service, which has a global reputation as one of the best and most professional, is just a gang that acts like an outsourced crime organization.
Cohen was asked about his relationship with Packer following a Haaretz investigation, which revealed he had received a $20,000 gift for his daughter‘s wedding, though the figure cited in ‚Uvda‘ was lower.
The recently retired Mossad chief, who is a close confidant of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also asserted that „everything was done in consultation and with the approval of the attorney general“ and that Packer wanted to give „much more.“
The next head of Israel‘s Mossad espionage agency will be David Barnea, whose appointment was cleared for publication Monday following consultations among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and the outgoing Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office said Thursday night that the cabinet had unanimously approved the truce without preconditions on the recommendation of all defense officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.
The statement said that Israel‘s achievements in Operation Guardian of the Walls were „unprecedented.“
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed Cohen before the meeting.
Cohen also met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday, alongside Israel’s ambassador to Washington, in which the Israeli officials expressed „deep concern“ about Iran‘s nuclear activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Zarif also blames Soleimani for being in cahoots with Russia, which “put all its weight” behind sabotaging the nuclear deal with the U.S. and world powers, as well as allowing Russian fighter jets to fly over Iran for Syrian bombing raids, letting Russia use Iranian airliners to move military personnel and equipment, and deploying Iranian soldiers on the ground in Syria.
The recording, of a conversation in March between Mr. Zarif and an economist named Saeed Leylaz, an ally, was not meant for publication, as the foreign minister can repeatedly be heard saying on the audio. A copy was leaked to the London-based Persian news channel Iran International, which first reported on the recording and shared it with The New York Times.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting to consolidate an Israeli strategy on Iran‘s nuclear program given the progress being made among signatories to the deal in talks in Vienna.
According to the official, should Iran engage in serious talks on an improved accord, Israel would share its position on what such an accord should look like. The official further noted that at the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was not a signatory to the accord and as such was not committed to it.
An Israeli security delegation due to visit Washington on Monday will not change the Biden administration‘s position on rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press briefing on Friday.
The team of senior officials led by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat plan to express their objections to the White House, which is currently emerged in indirect negotiations with Tehran in Vienna.
(22.04.2021)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the delegation traveling to Washington, D.C. next week for strategic talks on Iran to stress their objection to a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal and to refuse to discuss its contents, Israeli officials say.
With just eight days left in office for President Donald Trump, Pompeo alleged that Iran has given safe haven to Al-Qaida leaders and support for the group, despite some skepticism within the intelligence community and Congress.
On Monday, Pompeo was seen meeting with Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, according to Politico‘s White House Correspondant Meredith McGraw.
Spy chief widely seen behind killing of Iran’s nuclear weapons chief is a trusted Netanyahu loyalist, and his preferred choice to steer Israel through the coming regional chaos
Iran‘s top nuclear scientist was reportedly killed Friday in an apparent assassination that the country‘s foreign minister linked to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office has not responded to CNN‘s request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israeli sources said Monday.
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen also attended the meeting, which took place in the city of Neom, according to the sources.
In addition, some American and Israeli officials, and international security analysts, say that Iran may believe that President Trump will lose the November election and that his presumptive Democratic rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will want to resurrect some form of the negotiated settlement that the Obama administration reached with Tehran five years ago next week.
The Times also said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintains a close relationship with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, making it unlikely that Pompeo was unaware of the plan to attack the Natanz nuclear facility – if it was indeed an Israeli-engineered operation.
In the coming months no less than five senior members of the security establishment face replacement.
They are: Yossi Cohen, head of Mossad (Israel’s foreign espionage agency); Nadav Argaman, head of the Shin Bet, (domestic security service); Major-General Tamir Hayman, chief of Military Intelligence, and its Research Directorate director, Brigadier-General Dror Shalom; and finally, Meir Ben Shabat, head of the National Security Council.
A senior Palestinian official in Ramallah, unnamed in the report, said that the message was sent through Jordan following the reported meeting between Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and King Abdullah II.
Mossad (Israel‘s foreign intelligence) chief Yossi Cohen and his Egyptian counterpart Abbas Kamal reportedly spearheaded the talks, which yielded an agreement on the scale of the response.
The visit came to light in an interview former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman gave Israel‘s Channel 12 News on Saturday, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent Cohen and the Israeli military‘s chief of Southern Command Herzl Halevi to „beg the Qataris to keep funneling money into Hamas.“
The White House announced Wednesday that U.S., Israeli and Russian national security advisers will meet in Jerusalem in June to discuss regional security issues.
(today) The Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, is currently headed by Yossi Cohen, who was chosen for the post by Prime Minister Netanyahu after serving as his national security adviser.
While President Donald Trump condemned Iran in his address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly, a small but influential group of countries gathered elsewhere in New York City in an attempt to rally support for an increasingly controversial cause among the international community.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the ambassadors of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to Washington and the director of Israel‘s Mossad spy agency were among those who spoke alongside two of President Donald Trump‘s most senior officials at the 2018 United Against Nuclear Iran summit.
Technological developments are obliging espionage agencies to adopt diverse methods of operation: not only to dispatch agents to enemy countries and to recruit local sources for intelligence, but also to dupe people into serving as agents without their knowledge, to use mercenaries and to rely on new capabilities, such as cyberattacks. To avoid biometric identification, as well as to evade security cameras, espionage organizations are being compelled to make increasing use of unwitting local agents.