Abu Dhuhour airbase, Syria, Aug. 18, 2026. (Credit: Stringer/Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Wednesday to have "clearly" signaled to Turkey that it should not set up a base in Syria, implicitly acknowledging a strike that targeted a military airport in the neighboring country the day before. At the same time, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir visited troops deployed in an area of southern Syria, stating that the military would not allow any "hostile force to establish itself" at the Syrian border.
"We will not tolerate a gradual Turkish military entrenchment moving south, because it threatens us," Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast by army radio. He stated that Israel had first sent a "general warning" against a Turkish military presence at an airfield near Aleppo, close to the Turkish border.
"Apparently, they did not hear it, so we made sure they understood more clearly," he said, following Israel's bombing of the Abu Dhouhour airbase in Syria's Idlib province in the northwest the previous day.
Without explicitly claiming responsibility for the strike, Netanyahu's office had initially stated that "Israel had repeatedly warned Syria" against a Turkish military deployment "which would constitute a threat to Israel's security," but that Damascus had "chosen to ignore these warnings."
Similarly, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was "leading Turkey into dangerous ventures in Syria" and that his country would "not allow any entity to threaten its security," in a message posted on X and reported by Reuters.
'An escalation can happen on any front'
"We are monitoring developments on the Syrian front. We will not let hostile forces establish themselves at our borders and we will know how to use our operational capabilities precisely, where and when needed," Zamir said the day before from Syria.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syria since the ousting in December 2024 of President Bashar al-Assad by a coalition of Islamist groups. It has also deployed troops in the U.N.-monitored "buffer zone" that once separated the two countries' forces on the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1974, stating it wants to maintain a "security zone" there.
"We are still engaged in a war on multiple fronts ... escalation can occur on any of them, and we must remain constantly ready," Zamir added.
Turkey, which has had extremely poor relations with Israel since the war in Gaza, has rejected these allegations, denying any plans to deploy troops in Syria and any Turkish military presence at the Syrian airport targeted Tuesday. "We confirm that there was no Turkish military delegation at the airbase before or during the Israeli attack," a Turkish Defense Ministry official told the press.
In return, Ankara warned Thursday that it would "resolutely" continue to protect Syria's integrity and sovereignty. However, the Turkish presidency specified it was not considering retaliation and that Ankara "will not fall into the trap" set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We are sufficiently experienced not to fall into the trap of figures like Netanyahu, who seek to undermine peace and stability in our region," said presidential communications director Burhanettin Duran in an interview with the state-run Anadolu agency.
Duran denounced Netanyahu's political calculations: The latter, he said, "clings to this irrational stance due to upcoming elections, internal political tensions and fears. He views hostility toward Turkey as a political lifeline," he added.
Syria's sovereignty
Zeki Akturk, press adviser for the Defense Ministry, also denounced the strikes, which he said "seek to undermine Syria's stability, security, unity and integrity." "In this context, we will resolutely continue our efforts to protect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he warned.
For his part, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani accused Israel Wednesday evening of having "no legitimate justification" for bombing the base. He added that Turkish officers had visited the base as part of training and broader military cooperation, confirming reports from the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an NGO with a broad network of sources in Syria, stating that a Turkish military delegation had recently visited the airport "as part of ongoing efforts to bring it back into service."
Shaibani again denied any increase in Turkish military presence in Syria. The Syrian foreign minister also stressed that the infrastructure was largely empty and not yet operational.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who is also the U.S. president's special envoy to Syria, condemned the strikes, accusing Israel of "unnecessary escalation."
