Turkey warned Israel today that if it tests the country's patience ‘it will have a swift and decisive response’, referring to Israeli criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
‘Those who are brave enough to test our patience will receive a swift and decisive response,’ Turkish presidential spokesman Fahrettin Altun said in a statement.
‘Our message to Israel is clear: if you want lasting peace and security, stop the genocide and accept Palestinian sovereignty. Those who rule Israel are condemning our region to permanent war. Attempts to cover up this fact by manipulating public opinion will not work. They cannot camouflage their war crimes by attacking our President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,’ added the presidential spokesman.
Fahrettin Altun emphasised that the ‘esteemed’ Turkish president ‘is not a leader that anyone can intimidate or silence’.
‘We are united on the Palestinian issue and we will not allow anyone to dare to lecture us or threaten us,’ he continued.
Altun also referred to members of the Israeli government as "active participants in the ongoing genocide in Palestine." "It is only a matter of time before they are condemned by international courts," the spokesman predicted.
On Sunday, Erdogan said that Turkish forces could intervene militarily against Israel as they did in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave (situated between Armenia and Azerbaijan) or in Libya, a statement that prompted immediate reactions from Israeli officials, including Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who compared Erdogan to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
He should remember what happened there and how it ended," Katz said. Meanwhile, in Washington, the White House said today that it was "confident" that a wider war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah could be avoided, after a sharp increase in tensions in the region following Saturday's attack that killed 12 children and teenagers in the annexed Golan Heights.
Nobody wants a wider war, and I am confident that we can avoid that outcome," said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. "While we have all heard many times about this all-out war over the past 10 months, those predictions were exaggerated. Frankly, we still think they are exaggerated today," he added. Also today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a "harsh response" to the attack.
In recent months, the international community has been concerned about a regional conflagration linked to the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023.
A rocket attack targeting the Israeli-occupied part of the Syrian Golan Heights was attributed by the Israeli government to Hezbollah, which it denies.
"There is no indication at this point that there will be any significant impact" on the ongoing ceasefire talks, John Kirby also said of the latest developments.
Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite movement allied with Iran, opened a front against Israel, which borders Lebanon, the day after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in support of Hamas.
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