Heavy machinery operates at a site as a search for the bodies of hostages in the rubble of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. Egypt sent a team of experts into Gaza this weekend to help locate the bodies of deceased hostages as part of an international effort to shore up the fragile cease-fire in the territory, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (Saher Alghorra/The New York Times)
Share
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
ISTANBUL — Turkey has emerged as a key actor in solidifying the initial ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and hopes to leverage its powerful military, its experienced construction firms and its relationship with Hamas to play a role in the territory’s future.
But Israel is staunchly opposed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped press Hamas to accept the ceasefire, making Turkey a key guarantor. But throughout the war, he has harshly criticized Israel and stood by Hamas, which Turkey does not consider a terrorist organization as Israel and other countries do.
As the war escalated, Erdogan cut off diplomatic relations and trade with Israel. He routinely calls the war a genocide and has compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to Adolf Hitler.
During Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel last week, reporters asked Netanyahu whether he would allow Turkish security personnel to play a role in postwar Gaza. “I have very strong opinions on that,” he responded. “You want to guess what they are?”
Vance has said the United States would not force anything on Israel “when it comes to foreign troops,” but suggested that Turkey could play a “constructive role.”
Israel has many reasons to distrust Turkey’s intentions in Gaza, given its long-standing political support for Hamas.
Israeli officials worry that Turkey wants to help the militant group survive in Gaza, rather than assist in dismantling it.
“If you want to have peace, if you want Hamas to disappear,” then Turkey could not play a role in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a minister in Netanyahu’s government, said in an interview.
“Turkey supports Hamas,” he said.
Israel is also wary of Turkish aid efforts in Gaza. In 2010, an independent Turkish aid group organized a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, which Israel had blockaded since 2007, after Hamas came to power. Israeli commandos raided it and nine activists were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara ship, prompting international condemnation. Israel accused the flotilla activists of supporting Hamas.
Gallia Lindenstrauss, an expert on Israeli-Turkish relations at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that having Turkish troops in proximity to Israeli soldiers could be risky: “What would happen if there would be an accidental clash?”
—
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Ben Hubbard and David M. Halbfinger/Sahar Alghorra
c. 2025 The New York Times Company
RELATED TOPICS:
Categories
2 US Navy Aircraft Go Down in South China Sea
Lawsuit Plunges New York Into the National Gerrymandering Fight
Why Trump’s East Wing Demolition Needed to Happen
