Turkish prosecutors have indicted 35 senior Israeli officials over the October 2025 interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, accusing them of various offenses including crimes against humanity in a case tied to a humanitarian mission that was stopped in international waters, Turkish media reported on Friday.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had completed its investigation and sent an indictment to court, marking a new step in a case that had already produced detention warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.
The case stems from the Global Sumud Flotilla, a large activist convoy that set sail in 2025 in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver aid, including medical supplies. The flotilla included about 50 ships and more than 500 activists from several countries, including Turkey.
Turkey first opened an investigation on October 2, 2025, into the detention of Turkish citizens aboard the flotilla. Prosecutors later expanded the case, and on November 7, 2025, Turkish authorities announced detention warrants for 37 Israeli officials, framing the flotilla interception as part of a broader pattern linked to Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s office said the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli security forces while sailing in international waters and that the intervention had no legal basis. Prosecutors said the ships were forced to stop and that civilians on board were held by force, physically assaulted and subjected to treatment incompatible with human dignity.
The indictment accuses the suspects of crimes against humanity, genocide, unlawfully detaining civilians, assaulting passengers, torture, robbery, property damage and seizing the vessels, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Turkish authorities have not yet publicly released a full list of the 35 suspects in Friday’s announcement. That leaves unclear whether the indictment covers all the officials named in the November 2025 warrant decision, which Turkish Minute reported had targeted Netanyahu and 36 other senior Israeli figures, including then-defense minister Israel Katz, then-national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, former military chief Herzi Halevi and Navy Commander David Saar Salama.
This is not the first time Turkish authorities have pursued legal action against Israeli officials.
In 2010 Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara in international waters, killing 10 people and triggering Turkish indictments in absentia for four former Israeli commanders.
In June 2016 Israel and Turkey reached a normalization deal under which Israel transferred $20 million to a Turkish government account for distribution to victims’ families, while Turkey committed to passing a law prohibiting criminal and civil claims against Israeli soldiers and preventing future suits. Payment was completed in September 2016.
Following the deal and the new legal bar, an İstanbul court dropped the Mavi Marmara case in December 2016 and revoked warrants for the accused Israeli officers, a move that drew strong objections from victims’ families and their lawyers.