Turkish soldiers will not be allowed to enter Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, and US Vice President JD Vance during their visit to Israel this week.
“We will not agree to Turkish soldiers entering Gaza,” he said, a person familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post.
“We will decide together about that,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying. “So, I have very strong opinions about that. Want to guess what they are?”
Relations between NATO member Turkey and Israel, which were once warm, hit new lows during the Israel-Hamas War. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticized Israel’s operations in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Turkey helped persuade Hamas to accept US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan. It has said it would take part in the international task force to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, and that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed.
Challenge of upholding the ceasefire, rebuilding Gaza
Vance met with Netanyahu on Wednesday and focused on the “challenge of holding the ceasefire and rebuilding Gaza.”
“We have a very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” he said.
“It’s not easy,” Vance said. “I think the prime minister knows that as well as anybody. But it’s something that we are committed to in the Trump administration.”
Netanyahu said Israel would not agree to the Palestinian Authority taking part in governing the Gaza Strip, “unless it undergoes fundamental change,” and, of course, Hamas will have no part in the government.