Media: Netanyahu, top Israeli leaders face arrest warrants in Türkiye Over Gaza war crimes allegations

The Attorney General’s Office in Istanbul has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of “genocide.”

According to Anadolu Agency, the Turkish prosecutor’s office announced on Friday evening, November 7, via the social media platform X, that arrest warrants had also been issued for 36 other Israeli government, political, and military officials.

Among those named are Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister and leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Force) party Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

In a statement, the prosecution said: “As a result of the genocide and crimes against humanity that Israel has systematically committed in the Gaza Strip, thousands of people, including women and children, have been killed, thousands have been injured, and residential areas have been destroyed.”

The statement also cited Israel’s actions against the Freedom Flotilla, whose ships were once again detained by Israeli authorities in October as they attempted to reach the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg was among those aboard one of the flotilla’s vessels.

The latest flotilla departed from Barcelona at the end of August 2025. It comprised more than 40 boats and sailing vessels carrying several hundred people, including Thunberg. The organisers of the flotilla rejected Israel’s proposal to deliver the humanitarian cargo through the Israeli port of Ashdod.

On October 1, the activists also refused an appeal from Italy to halt their mission before entering the maritime blockade zone surrounding the Gaza Strip. Israel established this blockade zone roughly 280 kilometres off the enclave’s coast.

Earlier, in June and July 2025, Israel had already intercepted similar initiatives aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. The Israeli military detained the crews and seized the ships carrying the supplies. Thunberg also took part in a June flotilla that was stopped approximately 185 kilometres from Gaza’s coast.

Founded in 2010, the Freedom Flotilla movement declares its aim as the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. However, previous attempts by the group to breach Israel’s naval blockade have repeatedly failed, with vessels consistently intercepted near the region’s coastline.

Israel imposed a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007, after the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the enclave. The measure, supported by Egypt, is intended to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza by sea.

The current escalation of the Middle East conflict began with Hamas’s large-scale terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Militants launched rocket strikes, crossed into Israeli territory, and carried out the deadliest massacre of civilians in the state’s history, killing about 1,200 people. Around 250 hostages were seized and taken into Gaza, some of whom were later released in exchanges, while others died in captivity.

In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union, and several other countries.

According to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry—controlled by Hamas—more than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 170,000 injured during Israel’s ground operation and airstrikes on the enclave. However, the accuracy of these statistics remains unclear, as it is not specified how the figures are compiled, how many of the dead are Hamas militants, or whether the data includes Palestinians who died in hospitals of natural causes.

By Tamilla Hasanova