Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria, Aug. 18, 2026. (Credit: Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “dragging Turkey into dangerous adventures in Syria,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday, as tensions between the two countries rise following an Israeli strike on a Syrian airbase earlier this week.
Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria on Tuesday, warning that Damascus was on the verge of violating a “status quo agreed with Israel in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy at the site.
Katz said in a post on X that Israel would not “allow any entity to threaten its security.”
Turkey, however, said it would “not fall into the trap” set by Israel. Burhanettin Duran, the Turkish presidency’s director of communications, said Thursday that Ankara was “experienced enough not to fall into the trap of figures like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, who aim to undermine peace and stability in our region.”
Turkey has also denied that a military delegation visited the site, contradicting Israel’s claim that Turkish officials had recently been there.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said he had made clear to Israel that there were no plans to establish a Turkish military base at Abu al-Duhur and that the site was being rehabilitated for use by the Syrian Air Force.
“There was no intention to establish a Turkish base there, nor to establish a permanent Turkish military presence or deploy Turkish forces at the site,” al-Shaibani said in an interview with Axios on Wednesday.
The strikes followed growing security tensions between Israel and Turkey and increasingly sharp rhetoric over Syria, where both countries’ militaries are active.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and has emerged as one of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s main allies, has accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and undermine its new administration. Ankara has repeatedly called for international pressure on Israel to respect Syria’s territorial integrity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had warned Syria ahead of the strike not to allow a Turkish presence at the base.
“Our message was very clear. Don’t. I guess they didn’t quite understand the message,” Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Al-Shaibani said Israel had “no legitimate justification” for the bombing. He added that Turkish military officers had visited the base for training and broader military cooperation, but denied any Turkish military buildup, saying the facility was largely empty and not yet operational.
Last year, Turkey and Israel, which are also sharply divided over the war in Gaza, established a communication channel to prevent incidents in Syria. U.S. special presidential envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack told Reuters after Tuesday’s strikes that Washington was working to establish a deconfliction mechanism between Israel, Turkey and Syria.
Al-Shaibani said Syria remained open to negotiations with Israel on de-escalation. The two sides had made significant progress toward a security agreement during a year of U.S.-mediated talks, he said, but Israel later backed away from its commitments and the agreement was not implemented.
Any future deal, al-Shaibani added, must address the security concerns of both sides and respect Syrian sovereignty. He warned that continued Israeli military operations would increase regional instability.
