(Photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO)
The Cradle
SEP 28, 2026
The dispute between Israel and Turkiye comes as Netanyahu seeks to win support ahead of next month’s Knesset elections in a bid to remain prime minister
According to sources speaking with i24NEWS, Netanyahu ordered Israel’s inter-ministerial team and the director of the International Law Department to begin preparing the case.
Turkish presidential communications director Burhanettin Duran rejected the accusations as “baseless,” saying they could not divert attention from Israel’s actions in Gaza or the legal proceedings in Israel accusing Netanyahu of corruption.
The move comes after Erdogan announced in August that he had approached Interpol seeking a Red Notice for Netanyahu over Israel’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.
A red notice asks police authorities around the world to locate and provisionally arrest a wanted person.
In November 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel does not recognize the authority of the ICC and has imposed sanctions on ICC staff, including the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, with assistance from the US.
As a result, Israel may seek to promote an ICC case against Erdogan using a third country rather than directly.
Turkiye also does not recognize the international court and has not signed its founding treaty document, the Rome Statute.
Washington has pressed the court to drop its 2024 arrest warrants against the Israeli officials, as well as a past investigation into US troops in Afghanistan, according to Reuters.
On 20 September, the UK daily reported that Washington had prepared sanctions against the entire ICC and planned to announce them soon, a move that would bar US citizens and companies from supplying the court with funds, goods, or services without a license from the US Treasury.
In US President Donald Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last week, he branded the ICC an “evil group of people” and demanded that its member states withdraw immediately, echoing a campaign launched by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July to dismantle the tribunal “brick by brick.”
The i24NEWS report stated that the Israeli case against Erdogan will focus heavily on Turkish attacks against Kurdish minorities in eastern Turkiye. It will also touch on allegations that Erdogan’s government has funded Hamas.
“However, sources noted that Israel hopes it will not actually be necessary to file the case at all, and that it aims to use the existence of the case as leverage against Erdogan, effectively using it as a deterrent,” i24NEWS added.
The report comes as Netanyahu campaigns for a seventh term as prime minister and can benefit by appearing tough on foreign leaders viewed as hostile to Israel. Knesset elections are scheduled for 27 October.
Erdogan also benefits domestically when criticizing Netanyahu due to the anger of the Turkish public in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The Turkish president regularly calls Netanyahu a war criminal and accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
But while Erdogan and Netanyahu often criticize each other publicly, close economic cooperation between Israel and Turkiye has continued throughout the genocide.
Turkiye has not halted oil shipments to Israel, which originate in Azerbaijan and move by pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan before being loaded onto tankers for transport to Israel.
Alongside oil, Turkiye continues to export steel and other materials needed by Israel to continue its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
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