He routinely calls the war a genocide and has compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
During United States Vice-President JD Vance’s visit to Israel, reporters asked Netanyahu whether he would allow Turkish security personnel to play a role in post-war Gaza.
“I have very strong opinions on that,” he responded. “You want to guess what they are?”
Vance has said the US would not force anything on Israel “when it comes to foreign troops,” but suggested that Turkey could play a “constructive role”.
What Turkey could bring to the table
This month, Erdogan said Turkey would “meticulously monitor the word-for-word implementation” of the ceasefire deal and participate in on-the-ground enforcement and rebuilding.
“We will support the reconstruction activities with the international community to put Gaza back on its feet,” he said.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, said this month that Turkish officials had helped monitor the initial ceasefire.
He added that before Turkey could decide whether to participate in a proposed international stabilisation force for Gaza, its structure and rules of engagement had to be defined.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the Turkish Defence Ministry told reporters that the ministry was ready to help “protect the peace with its experience from previous peace missions”.
The duties of a stabilisation force, he added, could include aid delivery, security patrols, border monitoring, and the protection of civilian infrastructure.
Why Israel objects to Turkish involvement
Israel has many reasons to distrust Turkey’s intentions in Gaza, given its long-standing political support for Hamas.
Israeli officials worry that Turkey wants to help the militant group survive in Gaza, rather than assist in dismantling it.
“If you want to have peace, if you want Hamas to disappear,” then Turkey could not play a role in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a minister in Netanyahu’s Government, said in an interview.
“Turkey supports Hamas,” he said. “That’s a very simple equation.”
Of course, it was Turkey’s relationship with Hamas that enabled Erdogan’s Government to press its leaders to agree to the ceasefire.
“That is how ultimately Turkey came to sit at that table,” said Sinan Ulgen, director of Edam, an Istanbul-based research institution.
“It is based on its relationship with Hamas, not on its relationship with Israel.”
Israel is also wary of Turkish aid efforts in Gaza. In 2010, an independent Turkish aid group organised a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, which Israel had blockaded since 2007, after Hamas came to power.
Israeli commandos raided it and nine activists were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara ship, prompting international condemnation. Israel accused the flotilla activists of supporting Hamas.
On a visit to Israel last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that an international stabilisation force in Gaza would have to be made up of “countries that Israel’s comfortable with”.
Gallia Lindenstrauss, an expert on Israeli-Turkish relations at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that having Turkish troops in proximity to Israeli soldiers could be risky: “What would happen if there would be an accidental clash?”
Lindenstrauss said Israel doubts whether the Turks seek a role “to implement the ceasefire as written or to influence the situation on the ground in ways that they want and also to have more leverage against Israel.”
What Turkey wants in Gaza
Politics, both at home and abroad, underpin Turkey’s motivation to seek a role in post-war Gaza, analysts say.
“There is broad support among the public for Turkey taking a role in the stabilisation and eventually the reconstruction of Gaza,” Ulgen said.
“It also allows Erdogan to continue to uphold his image as an influential leader at the international level, which plays well with his domestic constituency.”
Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Beykoz University in Istanbul, said Turkey was also seeking a role for its construction companies to help rebuild Gaza, if someone else pays for it.
Erdogan’s Government also envisions a political role for Hamas in Gaza’s future, Han said.
“Turkey wants Hamas to remain relevant and it realises that the only way for Hamas to remain relevant is for it to give up its arms,” he said, adding that he was sceptical that Hamas would heed Turkey’s call.
“Neither Turkey nor anyone else can force Hamas to do that.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Ben Hubbard and David M. Halbfinger
Photographs by: Kenny Holston
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
