The message was delivered from Syrian territory by the Israeli chief of staff. “We are monitoring the evolution of the situation on the Syrian front. We will not let hostile forces establish themselves on our borders and will know how to use our operational capabilities precisely, where and when necessary,” declared, Wednesday, August 19, General Eyal Zamir, traveling in a sector of southern Syria occupied by Israeli troops.
The visit came a day after Israel’s bombing of the Abu Dhouhour airbase in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib. According to the Israeli government, Syria violated an agreement by accepting Turkish troops in this base.
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“We will not tolerate Turkish military entrenchment advancing towards the south, because it threatens us,” Benjamin Netanyahu added on Wednesday in an interview broadcast by army radio. According to the Israeli Prime Minister, “Israel had repeatedly warned Syria” against a Turkish military deployment, “which would constitute a threat to Israel’s security”, but Damascus had “chosen to ignore these warnings”.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, for his part, directly blamed the Turkish authorities on Thursday, accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of leading Turkey into “dangerous adventures in Syria.” He even advised him, in a message published on X, to change his policy. “It would be better for Erdogan to continue making empty and delusional speeches against Israel in the Turkish Parliament than to test Israel’s resolve to defend itself.”
Several hundred Israeli strikes in Syria
An official from the Turkish Defense Ministry, however, assured Thursday that “no Turkish military delegation was at the Abu Dhouhour air base before or during the attack carried out by Israel against this base in Syria.”
“The attacks against the Abou Dhouhour military airport aim to undermine the stability, security, unity and integrity of Syria,” Rear Admiral Zeki Akturk told the press. “In this context, we will resolutely continue our efforts to protect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Ankara supported Syrian President Ahmed al-Charaa, a former Sunni jihadist and leader of the coalition that ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, ending 13 years of civil war.
Historically, Turkey’s interests in Syria have always consisted of containing Kurdish separatism, the region of which straddles the two countries. Today, its priority is more to revive the Syrian economy, so that the refugees present on its soil can resettle there.
The Hebrew state has launched several hundred strikes against Syria since the advent of the new power. He also deployed troops in the buffer zone placed under UN surveillance which separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1974, claiming to have set up a “security zone” there which he intends to maintain.
Syria has, on numerous occasions, condemned Israeli operations on its territory, and demanded the withdrawal of the troops that Israel has deployed there.
Despite these tensions, Israel and the new Syrian authorities held several rounds of direct talks and agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.
When they came to power in December 2024, the new Islamist authorities in Damascus took control of Abu Dhouhour airport, held by the forces of deposed President Bashar al-Assad since the end of 2018.
Turkey, Netanyahu’s new electoral issue
If Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel, relations have become strained in recent months with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Coming from the political Islam movement, the latter strongly denounced Israel, particularly because of its devastating offensive in Gaza.
These relations further deteriorated after Israel’s brutal interceptions of a flotilla from Turkey seeking to deliver aid to Gaza and Turkey’s choice to welcome Hamas leaders on its soil. But unlike other countries in the region attacked by Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkey has powerful allies. It is a member of NATO and enjoys good relations with the United States, whose ambassador in Ankara has condemned the Israeli strikes.
Yair Golan, leader of the center-left opposition Democrats, called the attack in Syria “provocative and dangerous.” This “brings us closer to a confrontation with Turkey and aggravates the divide with our allies, first and foremost the United States,” he said.
As part of his current campaign for re-election, Benjamin Netanyahu has posted photos of several leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the words: “They want to see Netanyahu lose.”
This photo taken on August 19, 2026 in Tel Aviv shows a Benjamin Netanyahu campaign poster on which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears under the words: “They want to see Netanyahu lose”. © Jack Guez, AFP
Benjamin Netanyahu “is playing the anti-Turkish card. I think he sees it as something that can rally his base around him,” explains Gallia Lindenstrauss, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
After more than two years of going all out against Israel’s adversaries across the Middle East, the Prime Minister is now setting his sights on another alleged enemy, Turkey.
With AFP
