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Israel Issues Veiled Warning to Turkey as Countries Clash Over Gaza Role
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday warned regional powers — in an apparent swipe at Turkey — to abandon any ambitions of restoring an empire, as tensions mount over postwar reconstruction in Gaza and competing efforts to assert regional influence.
At a joint press conference with Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias in Athens, Katz said Israel was determined “not to allow actors seeking to undermine regional stability to establish a foothold through terrorism, aggression, or military proxies — in Syria, in Gaza, in the Aegean Sea, or in any other arena.”
“Those who dream of dragging the region backward, establishing control through terror, or rebuilding empires at the expense of sovereign states will encounter a resolute alliance of free, strong nations capable of defending themselves,” Katz continued.
Last week, US President Donald Trump announced the establishment of the “Gaza Board of Peace” as part of his administration’s 20-point peace plan intended to end the war in Gaza and advance the process into phase two.
Despite vocal opposition from Israel, Trump has invited Turkey — along with Egypt, Argentina, and several other countries — to take part in his newly created initiative.
Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected any Turkish role in Gaza’s postwar reconstruction, warning that Ankara’s push to expand its regional influence could bolster Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. Turkey has been a longtime backer of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that ruled Gaza before the war and currently controls just over 40 percent of the enclave’s territory.
Beyond now holding a seat on the Board of Peace, Turkey, a NATO ally, is also seeking a role in a multinational force expected to be deployed to the war-torn enclave to oversee reconstruction efforts, prompting Israeli warnings that Ankara could use its position to shield Hamas from disarmament.
Multiple media outlets reported that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has yet to decide whether to accept Trump’s invitation to join the US-led initiative in Gaza, with the country’s participation in the international force still uncertain.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that neither Turkish nor Qatari forces would be allowed in Gaza under the US-backed postwar reconstruction bodies, acknowledging a “certain dispute” with Washington over the issue.
“Turkish or Qatari soldiers will not be in the Strip,” the Israeli leader said in a speech to the Knesset.
Qatar and Turkey “are barely members of an advisory committee of one of the three commissions, in which they don’t have any authority or any influence or any soldiers,” Netanyahu continued.
Even as talks advance on phase two of Trump’s peace plan, Netanyahu stressed that Israel is still awaiting the return of slain hostage Ran Gvili’s remains, as stipulated in the first stage of the agreement.
“Phase two means one simple thing: Hamas will be disarmed, and Gaza will be demilitarized,” he said. “We are committed to these goals, and they will be achieved, either the hard way or the easy way.”
Under Trump’s Gaza peace plan, the international board of peace would oversee an interim technocratic Palestinian government in the enclave, supported for at least two years by an International Stabilization Force (ISF).
The ISF — comprising troops from multiple participating countries — will oversee the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, train local security forces, secure Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and protect civilians while maintaining humanitarian corridors.
In addition, the ISF would seemingly be expected to take on the responsibility of disarming Hamas — a key component of Trump’s peace plan to end the war in Gaza which the Palestinian terrorist group has repeatedly rejected.
Earlier this month, Erdogan warned that the ISF would fail to earn the trust of the Palestinian people without Turkey’s involvement, signaling Ankara’s determination to assert influence over Gaza’s postwar future.
“It would be impossible for any mechanism to gain the trust of the Palestinian people without Turkey’s involvement,” the Turkish leader said.
“We are in a key position for such a mission due to our deep historical ties with the Palestinian side, the security and diplomacy channels we have maintained with Israel in the past, and our regional influence as a NATO member country,” he continued.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.