The warning was delivered to Karim Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court who told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu’s legal advisor and, according to a note of the meeting lodged on file at the ICC and seen by Middle East Eye, was “authorised” to make him a proposal that would allow Khan to “climb down the tree”.

This, it was suggested, would allow Israel to access the details of the allegations, which it could not do at the time, and challenge them in private - without the outcome being made public.

Kaufman told MEE: “I do not deny that I told Mr Khan that he should be looking for a way to extricate himself from his errors. I am not authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government nor did I.”