Washington Post

Trump Sees Central Role for Turkey in Gaza Peace, but Israel Is Crying Foul

The Washington Post

12:09 JST, November 4, 2025

TEL AVIV – For almost two decades, Turkey has cultivated a relationship with Hamas – to the chagrin of some other countries in the region – but it won effusive praise from President Donald Trump in recent weeks for using those connections to help pressure the Palestinian militant group into reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel.

The central role that the Americans see for Turkey in advancing Trump’s peace plan, however, has left Israeli officials aghast. They consider Turkey to be too closely aligned with Islamist groups hostile to Israel and see it as a main competitor for influence across the Middle East.

Now, these clashing views – over what part Turkey will play in rebuilding Gaza and in participating in an international force to stabilize the enclave – pose one of the biggest challenges facing efforts to move onto the next steps outlined in the peace plan.

After being largely sidelined during previous efforts to end the Gaza war, Turkey is eager to capitalize on its success in persuading Hamas to release all the living hostages the group held in Gaza, an essential feature of the ceasefire agreement. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey wants to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza and has a “crucial responsibility” regarding construction and recovery there. He has even shown openness to contributing troops for the stabilization force.

Analysts who follow Turkey closely say the country’s participation would enhance its relations with the United States and foster the perception of Ankara as a key diplomatic player. A heightened role could also bolster Erdogan’s reputation among his conservative base as a global Muslim leader, observers said.

But the prospect of Turkish involvement in Gaza has provoked alarm among Israelis, who warn that Turkey’s ambitions would position hostile forces in Israel’s backyard.

“This idea of the Turks and Turkish groups going inside Gaza, it makes the Israelis crazy, after having done so much to prevent Turkish intervention,” said Michael Milshtein, the former chief of the Palestinian affairs section of Aman, Israel’s military intelligence directorate. “They are not a formal enemy but it’s obvious that they are not a partner of Israel.”

The Middle East has been reshaped by two years of conflict and upheaval. Along with its military campaign against Hamas, Israel’s attacks on Iran and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon – plus the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – have left Iran badly weakened and have cracked open opportunities for Turkey to step up as a regional power. Erdogan has also established warm personal ties with Trump despite the Turkish leader’s affinity for the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement from which Hamas emerged almost 40 years ago.

If “we finally get rid of Iran and Hezbollah, and then we end up with Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood inside Gaza, that would be a very dangerous situation,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Israeli politicians and diplomats have privately and publicly pushed to thwart any U.S. plans for a Turkish presence in the enclave. They have repeatedly insisted that Israel’s “American friends” agreed with its objections. “Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us … [and] this is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Oct. 26, amid warnings from the Israeli security establishment over Turkey’s possible entry into Gaza.

Vice President JD Vance said during his visit to Israel last month that the U.S. wasn’t going to “force anything on our Israeli friends when it comes to foreign troops on their soil, but we do think there’s a constructive role for the Turks to play, and, frankly, they’ve already played a very constructive role and we’re very grateful for that.” He dismissed questions regarding Turkey’s support for Hamas, saying that “the way that we’re going to get to peace is to focus on the future.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not respond to detailed questions. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday in public remarks that plans for the Gaza stabilization force are “currently being discussed” and that the Turkish military was “participating in meetings with their counterparts to discuss what will happen, what should happen, and so on, for a potential military formation.”

Turkey’s relationship with Hamas

During the past two years, Turkey’s ties with Hamas have been apparent, with Ankara accepting Hamas prisoners who were released as part of the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, said Milshtein, the former military intelligence official. He estimated that at least several dozen Hamas militants have been exiled to Turkey, including prisoners such as Abdel Nasser Issa, who was instrumental in building Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and in the tactics and strategies of suicide bombings.

Turkey has allowed Hamas members over the years to live and visit there, causing consternation among U.S. and other Western governments. The U.S. Treasury Department also alleged in 2022 that more than $500 million in Hamas assets were spread across companies operating in Turkey and four Arab countries.

Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that despite the Turkish government’s political support for Hamas’s cause, Ankara has not allowed it to build a military or financial infrastructure in Turkey that would support attacks on Israel. “Turkey has been largely careful of this line,” she said.

Israeli officials, however, say that any support for Hamas ultimately benefits its military activities.

Before Hamas’s assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Turkey and Israel had been improving their bilateral ties, including building robust trade relations. But since then, Erdogan has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and last year Turkey joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Erdogan has consistently referred to Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement, calling it an “organization of liberation” after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Early in the war, Turkey offered itself as a mediator but for most of the war was sidelined by the Biden administration and by much of the Arab world, according to an Arab diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press. (Turkey is a largely Muslim country but not Arab.)

An opening for Ankara

Trump’s return to the White House created an opening for Turkey, political analysts say. During his first term, bilateral relations were rockier, with the U.S. ejecting Turkey from the American F-35 fighter jet program, blocking its acquisition of the stealth aircraft after it had purchased the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. That exclusion “created a handicap for the Turkish air force, which has remained without a clear outlet for the acquisition of fifth-generation stealth technology planes,” said Sinan Ulgen, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and director of EDAM, an independent think tank based in Istanbul.

Erdogan’s efforts on behalf of the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire plan have improved Turkey’s prospects in Washington, though he left Washington after visiting with Trump in September with the F-35 question unresolved.

For Turkey, it makes sense for it to be involved in Gaza’s reconstruction, given that Turkish firms rank among the leading international contractors, with decades of experience in strategic and large-scale infrastructure projects. Turkish companies also have extensive experience clearing ruins after major earthquakes, which could make the companies well-suited to address the vast rubble of Gaza. These contracts look to be highly lucrative, with projected reconstruction costs running in the many billions of dollars.

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish aid group that has been banned by Israel for years for alleged ties to terrorist organizations, has become active in Gaza. IHH has been posting videos and photos from deliveries inside Gaza. This is “intentional, showing Turkish flags on the ground in Gaza, to internalize the presence of the Turks,” said Hay Yanarocak, a Turkey expert at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv.

IHH has denied having links to terrorist groups. IHH deputy director Mustafa Ozbek said in an interview that Israel’s terror accusations against his organization began after a 2010 incident in which Israeli troops raided an aid flotilla led by IHH. The episode sparked a diplomatic row between Israel and Turkey.