Turkey has prepared a lawsuit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of genocide in the Gaza Strip. As lawyer Burak Bekiroglu, one of the three initiators of the petition, reported on November 14, the document is currently under consideration by the Turkish Ministry of Justice.
According to the lawyer, the application should reach the ICC no later than next week.
“We have notified the crimes committed in detail so that the ICC prosecutor’s office can take action. We don’t know if it can [Нетаньяху] file a counterclaim based on the results of the investigation. But any international protest or judicial pressure will slow down the violence against babies, women, children and all civilians subjected to genocide and bring relief to these defenseless people,” he was quoted as saying TASS.
Metin Kulunk, lawyer for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party published on the social network X (formerly Twitter) the first page of the claim and clarified that the document contains a total of 23 pages. The text demands that the court prosecutor’s office collect evidence of Netanyahu’s crimes against the Palestinian people in order to then begin a criminal case against the politician and other perpetrators.
As reported by the agency Anadolu, The petition also noted that Netanyahu “committed crimes of war, genocide and crimes against humanity before the eyes of the entire world.” Moreover, the Israeli Prime Minister “does not hesitate to use weapons prohibited by international law.”
Earlier, on November 11, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the silent position of Western states that support Israel in the conflict in the Gaza Strip is an expression of cowardice and lack of conscience.
Prior to this, on November 4, Erdogan announced his refusal to further communicate with the head of the Israeli government, Netanyahu, amid the ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip. The Turkish leader stressed that the Israeli Prime Minister is no longer a person with whom Turkey could have a conversation. On October 31, Erdogan also said that Israel was committing crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations due to events in the Gaza Strip. The country’s Foreign Ministry noted that the decision was made in connection with the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in the Gaza Strip, which was provoked by “Israeli attacks on civilians.” On November 7, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Energy, Alparslan Bayraktar, said that Turkey was stopping the implementation of projects with Israel in the energy sector.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when the radical Palestinian movement Hamas subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and also invaded the border areas in the south of the country. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
According to the latest data, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 11 thousand people, and another 27.5 thousand were injured. On the Israeli side, 1.4 thousand people were killed and another 5.6 thousand were injured.
Palestinians are seeking to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses the conditions set.
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