Turkey has sought an international arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing him of “genocide” linked to Israel’s interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the justice minister announced Friday.
Turkey has become a virulent critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has frequently accused Netanyahu of “genocide”. 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. 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. Moskovitch is an Israeli soldier, who is also accused over actions in Gaza, according to Turkey’s IHA news agency. IHA, citing the indictment, said Moskovitch had posted footage on Instagram showing tanks and a bulldozer destroying buildings at the Islamic University of Gaza, including a hospital and medical faculty.
