Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a pardon from the country’s president over corruption charges.
Netanyahu denied wrongdoing, but said the three cases, which have been ongoing for five years, interfere with his ability to govern. Critics said that any pardon would damage Israel’s democracy, which they argue is already under threat after government efforts to take further control of the judicial branch in 2023 that led to widespread protests.
Netanyahu separately faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza; the death toll there is now 70,100, the Hamas-run health ministry said, largely because officials were able to reach bodies in the wreckage thanks to a period of relative calm.
