Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk, the Defense Ministry spokesman, warned last week that Israel "may further expand its reckless attacks, as it did in Qatar, and drag the entire region, including Turkey, into disaster."
"Israel's ability to conduct attacks with apparent impunity, often bypassing regional air defenses and international norms, sets a precedent that greatly worries Ankara," Serhat Sühay Kıbırcıoğlu, director of the Turkey Program at Trends Research and Advisory, told The Washington Post.
Turkey views these strikes as part of "a broader Israeli strategy to create a fragmented buffer zone of weak or dependent states around it," he added. These concerns are amplified by the intensifying rivalry between Israel and Turkey in Syria, where Ankara has been providing weapons and training to the new regime in Damascus. Last week, reports said Israel struck and destroyed a shipment of air defense weapons that Turkey had transferred to forces loyal to Abu Muhammad al-Julani.
Turkey has significantly expanded its military buildup in recent years. During Operation Rising Lion in Iran, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced an increase in the production of missiles for both air defense and long-range strike purposes. Last month, he officially inaugurated Turkey's new integrated air defense system, dubbed the "Steel Dome," while projects such as the fifth-generation KAAN fighter jet are being fast-tracked.
Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, Ankara director of the German Marshall Fund, said that an Israeli airstrike on NATO member Turkey would be "highly unlikely," but smaller-scale incidents, such as bombings or targeted attacks on suspected Hamas terrorists in Turkey by Israeli agents, could be a more plausible scenario.
Despite the cautious approach taken by senior government officials, Erdogan's propaganda outlets appear eager to project the image of an impending clash with Israel. GZT, a popular news website aligned with Erdogan's government, published a two-part series detailing Israel's "soft underbelly." The reports list potential targets across Israel in detail and include slickly produced videos showing aerial footage of the country with highlighted targets.
