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Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-israel-fears-turkeys-involvement-in-gaza/
Why Israel Fears Turkey's Involvement in Gaza
(Spectator-UK) Jonathan Spyer - The Turks have expressed a desire to play a role in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) which is supposed to take over ground security control of Gaza from the IDF (and Hamas). Ankara appears to have played a significant role in securing the 10 October ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Islamists. Now, Turkey wants a major role in future arrangements on the ground in Gaza, in both the military and civilian sectors. Israel is absolutely opposed to any Turkish role in future security arrangements in Gaza. This is because Israel identifies Turkey in its current form as something very close to an enemy state. Ankara allows Hamas to maintain a large office in Istanbul, from which it has planned both military and terror activities and political and media campaigns. Turkey also facilitates the unimpeded travel of Hamas officials by supplying them with Turkish passports. Turkish President Erdogan has never condemned the massacres of 7 October 2023. Rather, he describes Hamas as a liberation group. Moreover, Ankara has recently issued arrest warrants for alleged "genocide" against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and 36 other Israeli officials. Turkey's consistent pattern of anti-Israel activities fits comfortably with its military incursions into Iraq and Syria over the last half decade, its deployment of drones and proxy fighters in Azerbaijan and Libya, its efforts to build influence in Lebanon, the West Bank and Jerusalem, its burgeoning alliance with Qatar, and its strategy in the Mediterranean, in which it lays claim to expanded exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the eastern Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas. Israel suspects that Turkey wishes to make use of the ISF in Gaza as a platform by which it can reinsert Turkish troops into the Israeli-Palestinian context. However, the current U.S. administration shares little or none of Israel's perception of Turkey. The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum.