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ANKARA: Turkiye has issued an international arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an investigation into Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla for Gaza, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced Friday on X.
Turkiye has already issued warrants against Netanyahu and other top officials for “genocide” over Israel’s actions in the Gaza war.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X that his ministry had asked the interior ministry to issue an Interpol red notice for Netanyahu and another Israeli, named as Afek Moskovitch. “As part of the judicial proceedings concerning the attack in international waters on the Flotilla activists (…) and in accordance with the arrest warrants issued on July 14, 2026, against Benjamin Netanyahu and Afek Moskovitch for ‘genocide,’ the ministry of justice has requested that the ministry of the interior issue red notices for their international arrest,” the minister stated.
“We categorically reject the notion that the Netanyahu administration, which is implementing a genocide policy in Gaza, is untouchable and unaccountable,” Gurlek said on X.
‘Israel will not tolerate intervention’
Soon after, Netanyahu’s office responded by calling Erdogan an “antisemitic dictator” and vowed Israel would “continue to act forcefully against Turkey’s attempts to destabilise the region.” “Israel has long been unimpressed by Turkey’s hypocrisy. Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who massacred Kurds, supports the massacre of the Hamas terrorist organisation, and oppresses his own people,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, adding that Israel would “continue to act forcefully against Turkey’s attempts to destabilise the region and against any threat to its security.”
“We will not allow the crimes committed in Gaza to be covered up or the perpetrators to be shielded by impunity. We will resolutely utilize all possibilities of national and international law.”
International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on November 21, 2024. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians in Gaza.
Gurlek said Turkiye will continue to stand firmly by the side of the Palestinian people, the oppressed, and the conscience of humanity and would take all necessary steps with determination to ensure that those who commit crimes against humanity are held accountable before the law.
(With AFP)