Spying, Hacking and Intimidation: Israel’s Nine-Year ‘War’ on the ICC Exposed

The activities of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, are a closely-guarded secret. But a Guardian investigation revealed a covert operation by the Mossad to sabotage an International Criminal Court war crimes investigation, which threatened to embroil senior Israeli military and political leaders.

The culmination of months of reporting by investigations correspondent Harry Davies, along with colleagues at the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, this was a truly global scoop. It was widely followed up, including in Israel, where Yossi Cohen, the Mossad director who led the offensive and who threatened the then prosecutor in a series of secret meetings, is a well-known political figure.

Highly complex and challenging, the investigation required the team to develop national security, intelligence, military and criminal justice sources across multiple jurisdictions. It was also extremely timely, published a week after the current chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Brave and collaborative journalism, this is an extremely important story, diligently reported, with global ramifications,” said the judges. “For exclusivity, impact and investigative skills, this ticks all the boxes.”