Erdogan Tells UN’s Guterres Israel Must Be Tried in Int’l Courts over Gaza Crimes

Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Erdogan Tells UN’s Guterres Israel Must Be Tried in Int’l Courts over Gaza Crimes

Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Israel must be held accountable in international courts for the war crimes it committed in Gaza, the Turkish presidency said.

In a phone call ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza planned for Wednesday, Erdogan told Guterres that "Israel continues to shamelessly trample on international law, laws of war, and international humanitarian law by looking in the eyes of the international community", his office said.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the militant group carried out a deadly gun rampage in southern Israel last month, killing some 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. Israeli bombardment has killed more than 15,000 in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, part of a so-called contact group of Muslim countries that has been holding talks with Western leaders over Gaza, will attend the meeting in New York on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.



Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
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Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

The supreme leader of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah fighters combating Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.

Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

"They issued an arrest warrant, that's not enough... Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders", Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza".

The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Gaza residents expressed hope it would help end the violence and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

The warrant for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that triggered the war on the long-blockaded Palestinian enclave, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.

Israel has said it killed Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.