Why Karim Khan Really Left the ICC – The inside story

On May 16, 2025, the news broke: Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), temporarily stepped down — for an indefinite period — pending the conclusion of an investigation against him for sexual misconduct involving one of his close collaborators.

According to his statements, the ongoing investigation “would prevent him from effectively carrying out his duties” as Prosecutor, particularly regarding the international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

But the matter is far from simple and begins back in 2014.

Origin of the conflict

In 2021, Karim Khan was appointed Prosecutor of the ICC, succeeding Fatou Bensouda, whose relations with Israel had been particularly tense.

Indeed, after the State of Palestine submitted its application to accede to the Rome Statute on January 2, 2015, the accession came into force on April 1 of the same year. Immediately, the State of Palestine filed a complaint against the IDF concerning events that allegedly took place in Gaza on June 13, 2014, during the “Protective Edge” operation conducted by Israel against Hamas.

The mere acceptance of this complaint is worrying: in criminal law, it is customary to judge acts only from the moment a jurisdiction is competent, i.e., from the date of ratification or entry into force. In this case, the incidents concerned predate Palestine’s accession by nearly a year, indicating a politically biased approach by prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

When Karim Khan took office in 2021, he maintained case ICC-01/18 and explored various avenues to pursue the investigation.

October 7, 2023

The day after October 7, 2023, Israel refused Karim Khan official access to kibbutzim as well as entry into the Gaza Strip, declared a military zone.

He then tried to enter via Egypt, where he traveled at the end of October 2023 and met several Palestinian actors involved in the ongoing conflict.

In a speech delivered in Cairo on October 29, 2023, he promised to shed light on the “odious and disastrous situation in which Palestinian civilians find themselves,” while also raising the possibility that crimes against humanity had been committed against Israelis during the October 7 massacre.

On what appeared to be a statement of good faith, nine families of victims filed a complaint with the ICC requesting an investigation for crimes against humanity. On December 3, 2023, at the invitation of these families, Karim Khan visited Israel, toured the affected kibbutzim, and met victims’ relatives.

During his visit, he told local media:

“The attacks perpetrated against innocent Israeli civilians on October 7 represent some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes for which the ICC was created.

The warning

Following this visit, in an interview with Qualita on December 6, 2023, lawyer Déborah Abitbol warned of the risks linked to Karim Khan’s approach and statements.

It appears that through the complaints filed by Israeli victim families, Karim Khan may have finally found his entry point. While the State of Palestine has been a member of the Rome Statute since April 2015, Hamas is neither a legal nor official representative of the State of Palestine. Therefore, even if arrest warrants were issued against Hamas members, they would have no real legal effect, as Hamas is neither a government nor a legitimate entity under international law. In other words, even an international arrest warrant would not truly impact its members.

However, Karim Khan might intend to rely on the reciprocity of events to frame the October 7, 2023 massacre within a broader context, including the complaint filed concerning events from June 13, 2014, to open the way to international arrest warrants targeting Israeli leaders and several Israeli army officers.

April 2024, events escalate

In April 2024, a close collaborator of Karim Khan denounced the Prosecutor to UN investigators, alleging he coerced her into non-consensual sexual relations.

Under the spotlight, Karim Khan canceled a planned trip to Israel related to his investigation and, in May 2024, filed a request for international arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

The request was amended on November 21, 2024, and international arrest warrants were officially issued against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for the Israeli side, as well as Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh for Hamas.

While it is understood that the warrants issued against Hamas leaders are hollow — for the reasons mentioned above — this marks the first time the ICC has issued warrants against leaders of a democratic country with an independent judiciary fully capable of handling alleged responsibilities itself.

The American outrage

While the Trump administration is inflexible regarding American sanctions against the ICC in response to the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant, the Biden administration had, as early as May 2024, strongly voiced its disagreement with Khan’s request and his equating of the horrific crimes of Hamas with alleged acts by the Israeli army.

Biden stated:

“Let’s be clear. Whatever insinuations this prosecutor may make, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that perpetrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and still holds dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.

May 2025, the truth unfolds

By the end of 2023, it became clear that Karim Khan was at the center of a smear campaign led by the BDS movement and other pro-Palestinian NGOs demanding his removal. They accused him of refusing to directly target Israel, labeling him a “genocide enabler.”

Caught between the risk of official dismissal and the sexual misconduct complaint, Karim Khan took only a few months to decide and file his case against Israel.

In a May 2025 interview with the Jerusalem Post, a diplomat referred to a conversation he had had a year earlier with Karim Khan. Khan reportedly said:

“Wait and see. If I request arrest warrants against Netanyahu, that will give countries like Germany and Canada the pretext they need to turn against the Israeli government.

Karim Khan and the ICC today

In February 2025, shortly after his inauguration, Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening financial sanctions against anyone or any organization providing “financial, material or technological support” to Karim Khan.

To date, the Prosecutor no longer has access to his official email after Microsoft deleted his account. His UK bank accounts have been frozen, and American ICC staff know they risk arrest if they set foot on US soil. In short, the ICC is taking the full brunt of American anger.

Although the Chamber initially approved executing the arrest warrants in November 2024, on April 24, 2025, it referred the jurisdictional question back to a lower court for reassessment.

—

Notes:

• The Rome Statute came into effect in July 2002, establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague. The court was created to prosecute crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
• Israel is a signatory to the Rome Statute but has not ratified it, due to serious concerns about the organization’s political objectivity and the potential risks it poses to Israel and its citizens.