Turkey Seeks Arrest of Israeli Prime Minister With Interpol Red Notice

Turkey has asked Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military lieutenant Afek Moskovitch on charges including genocide and torture.

Justice minister Akin Gurlek said on Friday that the request was part of a domestic case related to Israel’s interception in May of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was sailing as part of an aid mission to Gaza.

Israel illegally detained the flotilla’s 428 activists in international waters, firing guns at two of their vessels. The activists said Israeli guards tortured them and sexually assaulted some captives.

“We categorically reject the notion that the Netanyahu administration, which is implementing a genocide policy in Gaza, is untouchable and unaccountable,” Gurlek said in a statement posted on X. “We will not allow the crimes committed in Gaza to be covered up or the perpetrators to be shielded by impunity.”

He said that arrest warrants issued by an Istanbul court on 14 July 2026 for 35 Israeli officials in relation to the flotilla prompted Turkey to request the red notices.

It is unclear to what extent Moskovitch was involved in the abuse of flotilla activists, but he is accused of helping to destroy the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza in March 2025, according to Middle East Eye, which cited Turkish officials.

A red notice is an international alert for the arrest of a wanted person, but it is not a warrant; individual countries can decide whether or not to make the arrest.

The charges against Netanyahu and Moskovitch also include crimes against humanity, aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty, intentional injury, torture and ill treatment, damage to property, aggravated robbery and the hijacking or seizure of means of transport.

Gurlek said: “The charges relate to the armed intervention against civilians delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters and the subsequent detention of activists.”

In response, Netanyahu’s office described Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbours Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him.”