Turkey has sought an international arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for genocide linked to Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla for Gaza, the justice minister announced Friday.
Turkey has become a virulent critic of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza that has been ongoing since October 2023.
Israel’s abduction of the flotilla carrying some 430 activists in May sparked an international outcry. France, Italy and Australia have also launched judicial proceedings.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X that his ministry had asked the interior ministry to issue Interpol red notice alerts 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.
Netanyahu and Moskovitch are being prosecuted for “crimes against humanity, genocide, aggravated deprivation of liberty, ‘intentional assault and battery,’ torture, destruction of property, aggravated looting, and hijacking of transport vehicles,” the ministry said.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “antisemitic dictator” following the announcement, and vowed Israel would “continue to act forcefully against Turkey’s attempts to destabilise the region”.
About 50 vessels were in the Global Sumud Flotilla that left Turkey in May heading for the besieged Palestinian territory to break an illegal Israeli blockade. The activists were abducted in international waters by the Israeli military and then taken to an Israeli prison before being expelled.
Israel’s fundamentalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir caused his own outcry by releasing a video showing himself taunting and abusing several flotilla activists who were on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs.
NEW ARAB
