Outcry as Turkish embassy in Israel lowers flag in honor of Haniyeh; envoy summoned
‘Israel will not accept expressions of participation in the mourning of a murderer,’ says Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as other politicians express outrage
The Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv lowered its flag to half mast on Friday in honor of slain Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, drawing swift backlash from outraged Israeli officials.
“Israel will not accept expressions of participation in mourning for a murderer like Ismail Haniyeh,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who summoned the Turkish deputy ambassador for a reprimand, in a statement published by his office.
“If embassy representatives want to mourn, let them go to Turkey and mourn together with their master Erdogan, who embraces the terrorist organization Hamas and supports its murderous acts,” Katz said.
Turkey declared Friday as a day of mourning for Haniyeh, who was killed on Wednesday in a blast for which Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility.
Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel assassinated Fuad Shukr, a senior commander in the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, following a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 children and teens in the Golan Heights.
MK Avigdor Liberman, of the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party, called the flag-lowering “one big disgrace,” and said on X, “It’s unacceptable that the country that has taken the side of terror organizations since the start of the war, and just this week threatened to invade the State of Israel, has an embassy in the heart of Tel Aviv.”
Liberman was referring to a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that Turkey must be “very strong so that Israel can’t do these things to the Palestinians,” and that “just as we entered [Nagorno-]Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we might do the same to them. There is nothing we can’t do. We must only be strong.”
Turkey has hosted Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, several times since the group went to war with Israel on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Turkey never condemned that attack, but has praised Hamas’s “resistance” and frequently denounced Israel’s conduct in its response, repeatedly accusing the country of genocide in Gaza and comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
After months of deteriorating relations, Turkey, which was Israel’s fourth-largest trading partner in 2023, halted all trade with Israel in May, threatening a major hit to both economies.
Following Haniyeh’s death on Wednesday, Erdogan denounced what he called the “perfidious assassination” of his “brother” Haniyeh and praised “the glorious Gazan resistance.”
On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was in Doha for Haniyeh’s funeral, met with Khaled Mashaal, a veteran Hamas official who is a likely successor to Haniyeh, in a meeting attended by several of Haniyeh’s surviving children.
The country also blocked the social network Instagram, reportedly over alleged censorship of posts praising the slain Hamas leader.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, wrote on X Friday, “The representatives of the Turkish embassy in Israel are welcome to lower the flag completely and return home. Shameful.”
Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, also shared a photo of the flag at half-staff, writing on X, “Erdogan long ago turned Turkey into an integral part of the axis of evil, and into a state that supports terrorism. Anyone who mourns an arch-terrorist with the blood of innocent men, women and children on his hands has no place in the State of Israel.”
