'Four other women': Has Netanyahu made slip-up in case against Karim Khan?

Israeli PM's allegations against ICC chief have never been mentioned in the public domain before

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes, photographed in August (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes, photographed in August (AFP)

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Karim Khan has questioned whether Israel is "interfering in and attempting to manipulate" a UN investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, following comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since late last year, the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has been examining sexual misconduct allegations by one female ICC staff member against Khan, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor - allegations he has denied.

But on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that four more women have made accusations against Khan. Netanyahu's claims have never been mentioned in the public domain before.

A spokesperson for Khan told MEE that he "has no knowledge whatsoever of the women referred to by Mr Netanyahu".

The spokesperson said that the prosecutor believes the Israeli leader's comments raise "profound questions" as to whether Israel is "interfering in and attempting to manipulate" the UN investigation, and that Netanyahu "is making significant efforts to discredit both the ICC and Mr Khan personally".

The Israeli leader made the comments during an interview with Breitbart News, a video of which was published on Wednesday.

Netanyahu said that Khan faced sexual assault allegations by a “female staff member”, before adding: “And since then, there have been four other women who came to the fore and accused him.”

This was the first time any mention of more than one woman making allegations against Khan had appeared in the public domain.

The following day, The Guardian published an “exclusive” story reporting that a “second woman has come forward to an inquiry investigating sexual abuse allegations against Karim Khan”.

Khan lawyers criticise Netanyahu

In a statement to Middle East Eye, a spokesperson for Khan said that the prosecutor "has been informed of only one complainant, and of a second individual to whom reference was made" in Thursday's Guardian piece.

The spokesperson said that the "second individual is understood not to be a complainant, but rather a witness" in the UN investigation.

"To be clear, no allegation of sexual misconduct has been made to Mr Khan, and no questions have been put to him – whether by the OIOS or by any other organisation – in relation to any other women.

"In the circumstances, it is therefore both extraordinary and deeply troubling to Mr Khan that a serving head of government, and one who has been openly hostile to both the ICC and the UN, and who is indeed the subject of an arrest warrant, should purport to have knowledge about other such allegations or individuals, or about an ongoing confidential investigation of which Mr Khan is the subject."

Exclusive: How Karim Khan’s Israel war crimes probe was derailed by threats, leaks and sex claims

The spokesperson further said that Khan "considers the timing of Mr Netanyahu’s remarks, immediately preceding The Guardian’s publication of its "exclusive" story of 28 August 2025, to be revealing and remarkable.

"Mr Netanyahu appears to be suggesting direct knowledge of complainants or allegations that have never been put to Mr Khan by investigators (or indeed by anyone).

"That raises profound questions, Mr Khan believes, as to whether a state actor is interfering in and attempting to manipulate the ongoing investigation by the OIOS – a process that should self-evidently be impartial, confidential and fair – or indeed to propagate yet further unfounded allegations."

Contacted by MEE for comment, a Guardian spokesperson said: "Our independent reporting on this matter speaks for itself."

MEE has asked Netanyahu's office for comment.

A female ICC lawyer told MEE that a group within the court had disagreed with Khan’s approach in seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and was working to discredit him. She said she had been approached in May 2024 and asked if Khan had ever behaved inappropriately towards her.

“I told them he is the last person on my list of men who would do that," she said.

Khan's spokesperson said they have been informed "of efforts to manufacture allegations against him, including attempts to solicit individuals to come forward with false accounts".

The spokesperson also said there had been attempts to imply that Khan's adopted daughter was trafficked, citing "wider efforts to gather and spread damaging information about him, unrelated to any allegation of sexual misconduct.

"Indeed, one of the most disturbing aspects of these efforts has been the attempt to imply, falsely and maliciously, that Mr Khan’s adopted daughter was the victim of trafficking."

Ex-ICC judge: Khan paying price for independence

Netanyahu's comments come after a major MEE investigation earlier this month revealed:

- Threats and warnings directed against Khan by leading politicians, including then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and US Senator Lindsey Graham
- Close colleagues and family friends briefing against Khan
- Fears for Khan's safety prompted by the presence of a Mossad team in The Hague, where the ICC is based
- Media leaks about sexual assault allegations against Khan

The events occurred while Khan was trying to build and pursue a case against Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for their conduct during the war against Hamas in Gaza, as well as for accelerating Israeli settlement expansion and violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

Earlier this month, one former ICC judge told MEE that he was “deeply disturbed, even scandalised by the way the proceedings against Karim Khan seemed to be unfolding”.

Cuno Tarfusser, who served at the court from 2009 to 2020, said he believed Khan was being made to pay a price for his “independence and intellectual honesty, together with his imperviousness to outside solicitations”.

Another former ICC judge, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said he was gravely concerned at how Khan had been named by the Assembly of State Parties, the body which oversees the ICC, as the subject of a complaint in apparent breach of his right to privacy.

Pressure on Khan started to build in April 2024 as he prepared to apply for the warrants for Netanyahu and his then-defence minister, Yoav Gallant; and again in October 2024, a month before the ICC judges issued the warrants.

Pressure intensified further this year as Khan was reported to be seeking warrants for more Israeli ministers, and coincided with further media leaks about the sexual misconduct allegations. The Trump administration also sanctioned Khan in February.

Khan went on leave in mid-May, shortly after an attempt to suspend him, prompted by a senior member of his own office, failed; and amid the ongoing UN investigation into allegations made by a female ICC staff member.

Khan's period of leave came shortly after he finished preparing applications for fresh warrants for Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

MEE revealed earlier this month that the applications are now with Khan's deputy prosecutors, both of who the US sanctioned this month.

Numerous sources within the ICC told MEE they believe the applications will be quietly shelved as the court faces unprecedented external pressure from Israel and the US.

Khan sought warrant against Netanyahu

In his interview with Breitbart on Wednesday, Netanyahu made a series of false claims about Khan and the arrest warrants the ICC issued last November for himself and Gallant.

Netanyahu said that Khan was “about to come to Israel, and on the day that he’s supposed to come, he cancels the visit, and I think two days later, he issues these arrest warrants for me, the prime minister of Israel, and our former defence minister, as war criminals.”

The Israeli prime minister added: “Little did we know that a few days before that, he was confronted by a senior staff member who said to him: 'There is a female staff member in your office who says that you have been raping her and sexually assaulting her for over a year'.

“So he decided the best way to get out of that was to hit the Jews, or hit the prime minister of the Jewish state, because you’ll have all that, you know, all the, all these extreme progressives lining up automatically behind him. They won’t support Israel. They’d support him."

Netanyahu continued: "So obviously they did. That’s exactly what he did. He wanted to extricate himself from these sexual assault charges, and he slapped these false, completely false charges, which I'll talk about in a minute, against Israel."

The Israeli prime minister’s claims echo those made by numerous British and American news outlets.

The Wall Street Journal claimed in an editorial on 16 May this year that Khan had used the arrest warrants to "distract from his own behaviour". It described the ICC’s case against Netanyahu as "tainted".

But, as previously reported by MEE, the prosecutor's decision to apply for warrants was made six weeks before allegations were made against him in late April.

British MPs react to 'shocking' MEE report of Cameron threatening ICC over Israel probe

MEE was told by multiple sources that on 16 March 2024 that Khan's team of lawyers and researchers had decided they would be in a position to apply for warrants by the end of April.

On 25 March, Khan informed the US administration of his decision, forewarning them that the warrants would be applied for by the end of April.

It was on 29 April 2024, over a month after the decision to apply for warrants was made, that one of Khan’s staff made harassment allegations against him.

Around this time, Khan received a security briefing that indicated that Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, was active in The Hague and posed a potential threat to the prosecutor.

The harassment allegations were referred to the court’s Internal Oversight Mechanism (IOM), its investigative body, on 3 May, but an investigation closed days later, after the woman said she did not want to cooperate.

This means that there was no investigation against Khan on 20 May when he announced he was applying for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Earlier this month, MEE revealed details about correspondence between Khan and the complainant, which appear to raise questions about some of the previously reported claims about the case in American and British media.

On Thursday, the Guardian reported that a second woman has “alleged that while working for the prominent British lawyer earlier in his career, he behaved inappropriately, subjecting her to unwanted sexual advances, abused his authority over her, and repeatedly sought to pressure her into sexual activity.”

At the time of the alleged abuse, which the woman reportedly said dates back to 2009, she “was in her 20s and working as an unpaid intern for Khan”, according to The Guardian. It reported that the OIOS received the new allegations from the woman this summer.

Khan’s spokesperson said the prosecutor denies having engaged in sexual misconduct of any kind.

The spokesperson added that "the suggestion by Mr Netanyahu that there is linkage between allegations that are currently the subject of OIOS investigation, and the decision that was taken in 2024 to seek arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, is entirely rejected by Mr Khan as being demonstrably false."

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Has Netanyahu made slip-up in case against Karim Khan?

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