Turkey indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 35 other Israeli officials Friday over the naval interception of the Gaza-bound “Sumud” flotilla in October 2025, with prosecutors seeking sentences totaling up to 4,596 years in prison, Turkish media reported.

Istanbul’s chief prosecutor charged those named with conducting a military operation against civilians in international waters, seeking a minimum sentence of 1,102 years. Among those indicted are Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Turkey had previously issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2025.

Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek framed the indictment as an expression of Turkey’s commitment to international law.
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail in late August 2025, comprising dozens of vessels and hundreds of activists from multiple countries. Israel intercepted the fleet and detained over 400 participants — including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg — before deporting them.

Netanyahu, Katz, and Ben-Gvir each responded on X, with Ben-Gvir addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an expletive-laden post. Netanyahu accused Erdogan of having “massacred his own Kurdish citizens,” adding that “Israel under my leadership will continue to fight Iran’s terror regime and its proxies.” Katz called Erdogan a “paper tiger” for failing to respond to Iranian missiles fired onto Turkish soil and dismissed the indictment as a “grand absurdity.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry escalated further Saturday, calling Netanyahu “the Hitler of our time” in an X post and vowing to continue pursuing accountability for what it described as crimes against civilians.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)