Turkish prosecutors indict 35 Israeli leaders, call to jail Netanyahu for 4,596 years

Netanyahu slams Turkish president for massacres of Kurds after Istanbul prosecutors charge nearly three dozen Israeli leaders, calling for sentences ranging from 1,102 to 4,596 years.

By World Israel News Staff

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed indictments against 35 senior Israeli officials and former officials, seeking prison sentences ranging in the thousands of years for their role in the war in the Gaza Strip and the interception of a Gaza flotilla last year.

The officials targeted in the indictments include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud), his predecessor MK Yoav Gallant, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit), National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and Navy Commander David Salama.

Former IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, MK Tally Gotliv (Likud), and former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen were also charged.

Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for the Israeli officials, along with sentences ranging from 1,102 years to 4,596 years in the case of Netanyahu.

The indictments rejected Israel’s legal justification for intercepting and seizing vessels en route to Gaza from the Sumud flotilla in 2025, denying that the move was a legitimate defense of national security and calling it “an act with grave consequences.”

Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek backed the decision to file the indictments, calling Israel’s seizure of the Sumud flotilla vessels “barbaric.”

“The planned and systematic attacks by Netanyahu and his massacre network against civilians—acts such as crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and plunder—will undoubtedly find their due reckoning before the law,” Gürlek wrote on his X account Saturday night.

Hours later, Netanyahu fired back, denouncing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for policies toward the Kurds.

“Israel under my leadership will continue to fight Iran’s terror regime and its proxies, unlike Erdogan, who accommodates them and massacred his own Kurdish citizens,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was among those indicted, penned a brief response on X directed at Erdoğan.

“Erdoğan, do you understand English? F*ck you.”