Turkey issued a request to law enforcement agencies around the world on Friday to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, amid a Turkish investigation into allegations that Israeli soldiers tortured activists on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
The pursuit of an Interpol “red notice,” a nonbinding request to authorities worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a fugitive, came as tensions have escalated in recent days between the two regional rivals, Israel and Turkey.
Akın Gürlek, Turkey’s justice minister, said in a statement that the request had been made “in connection with the armed intervention against civilians delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters and the detention of activists.”
There was no immediate comment on Turkey’s request from Interpol, the 196-member international criminal police organization based in Lyon, France, and it was unclear whether the request would be granted.
In May, Israel apprehended more than 400 activists on a flotilla of roughly 50 boats, which had set sail on the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey, as they tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The activists said they had aimed to bring food and humanitarian aid to the enclave.
“We will not allow the crimes committed in Gaza to be covered up or the perpetrators to be shielded by impunity,” Mr. Gürlek said in his statement on social media, alleging that the activists had suffered abuse, including torture.
The Israeli prime minister’s office shot back at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in a social media statement, calling him “an antisemitic dictator” and accusing him of harboring Hamas militants and massacring Kurds, among other alleged offenses.
“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere,” the statement said. It also accused the Turkish leader of seeking to “extend his aggression against Israel into Syria.”
Earlier this week, Israel conducted airstrikes on a defunct military air base in northwestern Syria. Israel said on social media Tuesday that the attack had aimed to prevent Turkish troop deployment there, a prospect Turkey denied.
After the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered Israel’s assault on Gaza, Turkish officials staunchly criticized Israel’s bombardment of the enclave, calling it a genocide, and Turkey’s president condemned Mr. Netanyahu, once comparing him to Hitler. Turkey also has issued domestic arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and dozens of other Israeli officials on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The request for an Interpol red notice, which seeks to arrest a fugitive pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action, is the latest chapter in the story of the activists, who departed Turkey on May 14.
Many activists expected to be detained, like those who had participated in similar flotillas, before reaching Gaza. They hoped that media coverage of their journey would call attention to Israel’s restrictions on supplies to Gaza, which tightened after the war began — and which later contributed, experts said, to famine in Gaza.
Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla and held activists aboard Israeli ships before moving them to a prison on land. There, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, walked among them, taunting them in a video he posted to social media, which showed rows of activists handcuffed and forced to kneel on the ground.
The New York Times interviewed dozens of flotilla members who said Israeli soldiers had beaten, sexually assaulted and fired rubber bullets at activists, among other forms of physical abuse.
The reports spurred condemnations from global leaders and investigations by prosecutors in countries including France and Italy, and by police officers in Australia. Israel denied the accusations, saying that the activists had been treated in accordance with the law.
The post Turkey Requests Netanyahu’s Arrest, Saying Israel Abused Flotilla Activists appeared first on New York Times.
