By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Aug. 22 — The Israeli police have confiscated a computer and documents from the official residence of President Moshe Katsav and plan to question him as part of an investigation into sexual harassment accusations, the police said Tuesday.
Mr. Katsav’s position is largely ceremonial, and any legal proceedings against him would not directly threaten the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
But the case comes at a time when several senior government figures have been involved in legal or political controversies. In addition, many Israelis have been sharply critical of the country’s political and military leadership over the handling of the recent fighting in Lebanon.
The case involving Mr. Katsav surfaced almost two months ago when a woman who previously worked for him told an Israeli newspaper that he had sexually harassed her. Later, a second woman made similar allegations. Neither woman has been identified.
Mr. Katsav wrote to the attorney general, saying one of the women had demanded money from him before she made her accusation publicly.
The attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, ordered an investigation last month, but the case was overshadowed by the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The police said they entered the president’s official residence on Monday night, taking the computer and documents. The authorities are searching for communications between Mr. Katsav and his accusers, according to Israel radio.
Police investigators will return to Mr. Katsav’s residence on Wednesday to question him, according to a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld.
Mr. Katsav has denied any wrongdoing, and his office said Tuesday that he was fully cooperating with the investigation.
No charges have been filed, but if they are, Mr. Katsav is expected to resign.
Israel’s justice minister, Haim Ramon, resigned Sunday after he was charged with forcibly kissing a female soldier last month.
In other recent controversies, the state comptroller has been investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr. Olmert’s sale of his Jerusalem home two years ago, and the purchase of a new one nearby. Critics contend that he received an above-market price for the sale of his old home and that he paid below the market rate for his new one.
Also, the army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, has faced a storm of criticism after a newspaper disclosed that he spoke to his bank and sold mutual fund shares several hours after Hezbollah staged its cross-border raid on July 12, precipitating the fighting in Lebanon.
Mr. Katsav was appointed to his post in 2000, after his predecessor, Ezer Weizman, resigned amid a corruption scandal. Mr. Weizman quit after it was disclosed that during the 1980’s, when he was a member of parliament and a government minister, he received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a French businessman with interests in Israel.
In other developments Tuesday, an Israeli military court in the West Bank charged the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Dweik, a Hamas member, with belonging to an illegal organization, The Associated Press reported.
Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization, and membership in the group is banned under Israeli law.
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