Turkey escalated its political and judicial confrontation with Israel, after it announced its move to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to issue red notices against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and arrest him, in a move that sparked a sharp Israeli response that accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “hypocrisy and anti-Semitism.”
According to a report by journalist Yehezkel Kornberg on the Israeli broadcaster Kan, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlik announced that he had asked the Interior Ministry to issue red notices through Interpol to arrest Netanyahu, as part of the judicial procedures related to Israel’s interception of an aid fleet heading to the Gaza Strip.
Gorlick explained that the request is based on arrest warrants previously issued by the International Criminal Court, against the backdrop of suspicions of genocide in Gaza and other crimes against humanity, according to what was stated in his announcement.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office responded violently to the Turkish move, saying: “Israel has long ceased to be affected by Turkey’s hypocrisy. Erdogan is an anti-Semitic dictator. He slaughtered the Kurds, supports the massacre committed by the terrorist organization Hamas, and oppresses his own people.”
The office added, “Israel will continue to move forcefully against Türkiye’s attempts to destabilize the region, and against every threat to its security.”
This escalation comes after a series of strongly worded Turkish positions against the Israeli raids in Syria, which Israel said targeted attempts at Turkish concentration in the north of the country.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense denied the presence of its forces in the base that was bombed, stressing that “no Turkish military delegation was present at the Syrian Air Force base before or during the Israeli raids.”
Ankara also called on the international community to take action, saying that “there is a need to take more serious and effective steps against Israel’s practices that threaten peace and stability in the region.”
The Turkish Ministry of Defense added: “The belief that Israeli military interventions in neighboring countries are routine actions or acceptable movements must be prevented,” stressing that Türkiye “will continue to firmly support Syria’s sovereignty.”
Hours after the raid, Netanyahu revealed that Israel was behind it, and said: “Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo on security issues, and Syria was about to violate it after it allowed Turkish forces to deploy at an air base near Aleppo.”
Thus, the confrontation between Ankara and Tel Aviv moves from an exchange of accusations over Syria and Gaza to an international judicial process targeting Netanyahu personally, in light of a sharp escalation of tension between the two countries.
