A few days after Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said Israel would work to eliminate Hamas anywhere in the world, including Turkey, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Wednesday that "Israel will pay a heavy price if it tries to eliminate Hamas operatives on our territory." Reuters reported earlier this week that Turkey had warned Israel against such an action.
According to a Reuters report, Erdogan called Hamas "a resistance group fighting to defend its lands." He added that the future of Gaza would be determined by the Palestinians and that Israel should return the "occupied territories," as he put it, and also rejected the possibility of establishing a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip after the end of the "iron sword" war, claiming that it "does not respect the Palestinians." Reuters reported last week that Israel had proposed the plan to a number of Arab countries, including Turkey.
Erdogan, yesterday: "Netanyahu will be investigated as a war criminal" // Photo: Reuters
Speaking to reporters on a flight to Qatar, the Turkish president said that Western support for Israel, especially from the United States, "has caused the current situation in the region."
Erdogan's comments come after Kan 11 News on Sunday published recordings of Barr being heard saying, "We will eliminate Hamas everywhere – in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar." Bar was also heard saying: "This is our Munich [a reference to the operation to eliminate the terrorists behind the massacre of eleven athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics]. The cabinet set a goal for us. In the words of the street, it is to eliminate Hamas, and we are determined to do that."
He was also heard saying, "It will take a few years, but we will be there to do it. The security responsibility is ours. Our duty is to provide both security and a sense of security. Unfortunately, on October 7 we couldn't do that. I think we're on the rise and we're not waiting."
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in exclusive recordings: "We will eliminate senior Hamas figures in Qatar and Turkey as well. This is the Munich of our generation." And also - the responsibility Barr takes in his voice for the failure that led to October 7. The exposure of @carmeldangor#NewsTonight pic.twitter.com/1cNomMzos7
— Kan News (@kann_news) December 3, 2023
Just yesterday, Erdogan attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he would be investigated as a war criminal: "He, the butcher of Gaza, will be investigated for sure, just as Slobodan Milosevic [the former president of Serbia accused of involvement in genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Croatia] is being investigated. He revealed to the cameras himself that the story was not Gaza or Ramallah, but the expansionist intentions. Therefore, defending Gaza and Palestine means defending Mecca, Medina, Istanbul and Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and other Islamic cities."
Turkey condemned the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists on October 7, but later that month Erdogan called the terror group's operatives "freedom fighters." He also criticized the unconditional support of some Western countries for Jerusalem, drawing strong reactions from Italy and Israel.
Erdogan at his last meeting with Netanyahu, last September, Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO
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