JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asked its president Sunday to pardon him in his long-running corruption trial, a request that the president called “extraordinary” and that critics said would run counter to the rule of law.

Netanyahu’s unusual preemptive appeal to President Isaac Herzog, while his trial is still underway, came about two weeks after President Donald Trump sent a letter to Herzog urging him to pardon the Israeli prime minister.

A statement by the Israeli president’s office said the request would have “significant implications,” and that he would “responsibly and sincerely consider” it after seeking expert opinions.

Netanyahu said he believed that canceling his trial would help heal the divisions in Israeli society. But the immediate effect of the request appeared to amplify the rifts that have intensified over two years of war and his long battle with the judiciary.

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in connection with three separate, but interlocking cases, and he has been on trial for five years. He has denied any wrongdoing in the cases, which center on accusations that he arranged favors for tycoons in exchange for gifts and sympathetic media coverage for himself and his family.

Soon after his request to the president was made public, Netanyahu explained his reasoning in a video statement. He said that he would have preferred to prove his innocence in court, but that the national interest demanded otherwise.

Citing Israel’s “security and political reality,” he called the requirement that he appear in court to testify three times a week “an impossible demand,” and he referred to Trump’s equally extraordinary interventions on his behalf as justification for seeking a pardon.

Israeli legal experts said such a request by a sitting Israeli prime minister was without precedent and subverted the principle of equality before the law, a cornerstone of Israeli democracy.

Netanyahu said he believed that ending his trial would help foster national unity at a time when Israel urgently needs it, after two years of war.

But the request for clemency, like the graft trial itself, is more likely to prove divisive before national elections scheduled to be held by late October. By law, Netanyahu may run in the next election as long has he has not been convicted after exhausting an appeals process.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

A shooting Saturday night at a birthday party in California’s Central Valley left four people dead and 11 others injured, the local sheriff’s office said.

About 15 people were shot near a shopping plaza in Stockton, California, Heather Brent of the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.

Three children, ages 8, 9, and 14, were killed, along with a 21-year-old adult, Brent said. She did not give further details about them.

Several gunshot victims were transported to hospitals in the area. A spokesperson for Sutter Health Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, about 35 miles from the shooting scene, said there were three injured adults from the shooting in the hospital’s care.

The victims were believed to have been attending the party at a catering hall when the shooting occurred, Brent said, adding that early indications suggested that the attack was targeted and not random.

As of late morning Sunday, no suspect was in custody, she said.

“Our investigations team is working around the clock to pursue all possibilities,” she said.

A local faith group announced that it would hold a prayer vigil near the site of the shooting around 3 p.m. Sunday.

The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on social media that his Office of Emergency Services was monitoring the situation in Stockton and coordinating with local law enforcement.

Ron Freitas, the district attorney for San Joaquin County, said Saturday night that the Stockton Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and other agencies were assisting the sheriff’s office with the investigation.

Stockton, a city of about 320,000, is about 50 miles south of the state capital, Sacramento, and roughly 100 miles northeast of San Francisco.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.