Israel’s Netanyahu appears in court for 84th hearing in corruption trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared before the District Court in Tel Aviv on Wednesday for the 84th time in his ongoing trial on corruption charges.

According to Israeli news website Walla, Wednesday’s hearing could be the final session related to Case 4000 before the court moves on to examining Case 2000.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and described the charges as politically motivated.

The cases, known as “1000,” “2000” and “4000,” center on allegations that Netanyahu received valuable gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors, sought favorable media coverage from a newspaper publisher and granted regulatory benefits to a telecommunications executive in return for positive coverage on a news website.

In addition to the domestic corruption trial, Netanyahu has been wanted since 2024 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has killed more than 72,000 people and injured over 172,000 others in a brutal offensive since October 2023.

*Writing by Rania Abushamala in Istanbul.