Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Friday accused Turkey of hypocrisy after his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, criticized Israel’s actions in Syria, saying Jerusalem would continue taking all necessary measures to protect its citizens.
In a statement posted on X, Sa’ar said Fidan had accused Israel of destabilizing Syria for taking “the minimum measures necessary to protect Israeli citizens from attacks.”
“These are the same Turkish leaders who have spent decades violating the sovereignty of Syria while cynically lecturing others on international law,” Sa’ar wrote.
He said Turkey occupies about 5% of Syrian territory and is seeking to establish military bases inside the country “to undermine Israel’s security.”
By contrast, Sa’ar said, Israel controls a buffer zone amounting to “just one-tenth of one percent” of Syrian territory to prevent terrorist groups from attacking the Jewish state from southern Syria.
He said the security zone became necessary after Syrian militants violated the 1974 Israel-Syria Separation of Forces Agreement by entering the demilitarized buffer zone in December 2024.
Sa’ar also accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government of repeatedly violating the sovereignty of neighboring states through military operations against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, maintaining its decades-long military presence in northern Cyprus, and drawing international criticism over its human rights record.
“What Minister Fidan wants is for Israel to stop protecting itself from threats to its security. This will not happen,” Sa’ar said. “Israel will continue to take all measures necessary to defend its citizens against any threat.”
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accuses Israel of destabilizing Syria for taking the minimum measures necessary to protect Israeli citizens from attacks. These are the same Turkish leaders who have spent decades violating the sovereignty of Syria while cynically lecturing others on…
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 6, 2026
The exchange came a week after Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli sharply criticized Turkey following Fidan’s meeting in Ankara with a Hamas delegation led by the group’s newly elected political chief, Khalil al-Hayya.
Chikli accused Erdoğan’s government of becoming “the command center for Hamas’s rapists and murderers,” alleging that Hamas operatives were living freely in Turkish hotels while planning terrorist attacks in Europe.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, Fidan congratulated al-Hayya on his election as Hamas Political Bureau chief and reaffirmed Ankara’s support for what he called the “just” Palestinian cause. He also reportedly pledged continued support for Gaza and praised Hamas’s role in efforts to achieve peace.
Al-Hayya, who left Gaza before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and is now based primarily in Qatar, has led Hamas’s negotiating team in ceasefire talks with the United States. In January 2025, he described the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza, as “a source of pride for our people … to be passed down from generation to generation.”
