{"id":387671,"date":"2026-04-12T03:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387671\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:26:10","slug":"as-turkey-reportedly-seeks-to-jail-them-israeli-leaders-blast-erdogan-for-massacring-kurds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/387671\/","title":{"rendered":"As Turkey reportedly seeks to jail them, Israeli leaders blast Erdogan for &#8216;massacring Kurds&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli leaders lashed out Saturday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after prosecutors in Turkey reportedly filed indictments against 35 top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking a total of more than 4,500 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Netanyahu accused Erdogan of massacring Kurds in his own country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael under my leadership will continue to fight Iran\u2019s terror regime and its proxies, unlike Erdogan who accommodates them and massacred his own Kurdish citizens,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports in Turkey, prosecutors are seeking up to 4,596 years behind bars in total for officials including Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.<\/p>\n<p>They are accused of alleged crimes against humanity and genocide, as well as of stopping the Sumud flotilla from reaching Gaza in 2025 and abusing its participants.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Katz also lashed out at Erdogan on X, calling him a \u201cpaper tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErdogan, who did not respond to missile fire from Iran into Turkish territory and has proven to be a paper tiger, is now fleeing into the realm of antisemitism and calling for show trials in Turkey against Israel\u2019s political and military leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat an absurdity. A man of the Muslim Brotherhood, who massacred the Kurds, accuses Israel \u2014 defending itself against his Hamas allies \u2014 of genocide,\u201d Katz added. \u201cIsrael will continue to defend itself with strength and determination \u2014 and he would do well to remain silent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2024\/11\/F241107YS248.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3415073\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/F241107YS248-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tNewly-appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a plenum session in Knesset, in Jerusalem, on November 8, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n<p>The ultranationalist Ben Gvir, known for his firebrand style, was more concise and less diplomatic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErdogan, do you understand English?\u201d he tweeted in Hebrew, before adding, in English: \u201cFuck You.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Turkey, while a fierce critic of Israel, joined diplomatic efforts with Egypt and Pakistan to reach a ceasefire in the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire last week, Erdogan warned US President Donald Trump of \u201cpossible provocations and sabotage\u201d that could undermine the agreement, without specifying who might threaten the deal.<\/p>\n<p>During his phone call with Trump, Erdogan also urged that the truce \u201cnot be compromised under any circumstances,\u201d saying Ankara would offer its full support to ensure as much.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tYou appreciate our wartime journalism\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DH-new-headshot-circular.png\" class=\"attachment-square_large size-square_large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"crm-article-popup__counter-wrap\" style=\"display:none\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read  X Times of Israel articles in the past month.&#13;\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.<\/p>\n<p>Your support is essential to continue our work. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli leaders lashed out Saturday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after prosecutors in Turkey reportedly filed indictments&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-387671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}