Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday joined in accusing the recused International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan of manufacturing “war crimes” allegations against the Jewish state to deflect from claims of sex crimes made against him.
Echoing a May report by The Wall Street Journal, Netanyahu said Khan had initially planned to visit Israel and had praised its judiciary, but canceled his trip on the same day that he announced he would be seeking arrest warrants for the prime minister and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
“We were absolutely dumbfounded,” Netanyahu said. “We didn’t know what happened to make Khan suddenly change his mind.
Jerusalem discovered the “real reason” for the cancellation only months later, he said. A few days before Khan’s planned visit, a female member of his staff accused him of rape and sexual assault.
The Jewish leader alleged that Khan, whose brother was convicted in 2022 for sexually assaulting a child, “hatched a plan” to “scapegoat Israel, rally the anti-Israel mob behind him” to save his career.
The REAL reason that the International Criminal Court accused Israel. The scandal they tried to hide.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 4, 2025
הסיבה האמיתית לכך שהאשימו את ישראל בבית הדין הפלילי הבינלאומי. pic.twitter.com/UaBsleWBdP
In May 2024, Khan announced that he would request arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for “crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip.
The Hague-based tribunal, which independently prosecutes the gravest war crimes and is not part of the United Nations, issued the warrants in November.
“Now Khan has since been suspended, but his preposterous arrest warrants and his patently false charges against Israel have not been removed,” Netanyahu lamented on Thursday, adding: “They should be removed and removed immediately for justice and for truth to prevail.”
The premier denounced Khan’s arrest warrants against him and Gallant, which accuse the two of using starvation as a weapon of warfare, as well as deliberately targeting civilians, as lacking any factual basis.
“Israel has let in more than two million tons of aid into Gaza. That’s one ton of aid per person and, by the way, Hamas stole much of it,” he said, noting that Jerusalem’s army has also “sent millions of texts and phone messages to Palestinian civilians urging them to get out of harm’s way.”
The anti-Israel slander is “a travesty of justice, and that’s why President Trump and Secretary Rubio have issued sanctions on Karim Khan and the other corrupt ICC officials for their malign activities,” he added.
Khan has taken leave pending the outcome of the probe into allegations that he assaulted a Malaysian co-worker while urging her not to pursue charges, as they might hinder his war-crimes case against Israeli leaders.
“Think about the Palestinian arrest warrants,” the chief prosecutor was cited as saying, according to his accuser. He has denied all allegations.
Accounts and email frozen
A second accuser has since provided testimony to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services, which is probing the accusations made against the top prosecutor, The Guardian reported last week.
The second woman, identified only as “Patricia” by the British daily, said Khan abused his power and subjected her to a “constant onslaught” of unwanted advances while she worked as an intern for him in 2009.
The Associated Press reported three months ago that the ICC proceeding against the Jewish state’s leaders had ground to a halt in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order in February to sanction Khan and the court.
Khan, who is British, has reportedly been frozen out of his U.K. bank accounts and even lost all access to his work email accounts.
