Türkiye issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu

A court in Istanbul, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and 35 other members of the government and military leadership of the country. The press release was posted on the department’s social networks.

Warrants have also been issued for the arrest of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir and Commander of the Israeli Navy David Saar Salam, the BBC Turkish Service clarifies . They are accused of crimes against humanity and genocide.

“The State of Israel is systematically committing genocide in Gaza, committing crimes against humanity that have left thousands of people, including women and children, dead, thousands more injured, and rendered residential areas uninhabitable,” the agency said in a statement.

The investigation, as noted by the BBC, was launched after Israel detained ships from the Global Sumud humanitarian flotilla in early October. More than 40 ships carrying about 500 activists, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, left Barcelona at the end of August. The flotilla was heading towards the Gaza Strip with the goal of breaking the naval blockade of the exclave and, as stated, delivering humanitarian aid - food, water and medicine.

Among the activists were also Turkish citizens. The Turkish prosecutor's office considered the detention of Sumud a violation of international law on the part of Israel.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant. The prosecutor then accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Palestinian territories by Israeli forces during the war with Hamas.