Turkiye hopes Israel’s Netanyahu is brought before ICJ for war crimes

Numan Kurtulmus

26 February 2024; MEMO: Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus has expressed hope that the trials at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will lead to bringing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the court for war crimes Israel is committing against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reported.

“We hope that Netanyahu and war criminal top executives such as Radovan Karadzic (former political leader of Bosnia’s Serbs) and Ratko Mladic (former Serb commander) are destined to be held accountable and punished at the international war crimes court as well,” Kurtulmus told press members on his return from Azerbaijan, where he participated in the 14th Plenary Session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).

“Here, what we expect from the countries that have supported Israel until now is that they should no longer give this support. Because not only Netanyahu and his regime will collapse, but also the countries that support him will be affected,” Kurtulmus urged.

Kurtulmus believes that the Palestinian cause had entered a new era with South Africa’s filing before the ICJ and its issuance of provisional measures against Israel.

The Parliament speaker continued: “The brutal massacre in which Netanyahu and his gang shoot and kill even sheep walking on the road has reached a point that no one can defend,” noting that more than 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza since October, 75 per cent being women and children.

“It is obvious that the threat of ‘We will kill them too, we will not leave them alive,’ especially against those who have taken refuge at the Rafah Border Crossing in Gaza, has put Netanyahu on an endless path,” Kurtulmus warned, “and now there is no turning back for him either.”

Since October, Israel has been waging a devastating war against the besieged Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of 29,514 people and wounding of 69,616 others, in addition to the displacement of more than 85 per cent (about 1.9 million people) of the Strip’s population, according to Palestinian and United Nations figures.