Turkey on Tuesday night condemned Israel’s confirmation that it carried out airstrikes on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria, rejecting Jerusalem’s explanation for the operation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel acted after Syria was close to violating a security understanding by allowing Turkish forces to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.
“Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.”
The statement added that Israel had repeatedly warned Damascus that a Turkish deployment there would endanger Israeli security.
“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings. Israel will not tolerate threats to its security, and would welcome a return to the status quo.”
Turkey’s Directorate of Communications rejected the Israeli explanation, accusing Jerusalem of attempting to justify an attack on Syrian territory.
“The allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Ministry, which lack seriousness, aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.”
Ankara further accused Netanyahu of pursuing regional expansion and destabilization for political purposes ahead of elections in Israel.
“The accusations raised stem from Netanyahu’s intent to continue his expansionist and destabilizing policies in the region ahead of elections in Israel,” Turkey claimed.
“Turkey, like the vast majority of the international community, supports the establishment of lasting peace in our region. The sole path to this lies in Netanyahu abandoning his aggressive and coercive policies and demonstrating respect for international law.”
Turkey also defended its cooperation with the Syrian government, saying it would continue working with Damascus to promote stability.
“Turkey will steadfastly continue its cooperation with the Syrian Government on legitimate grounds to establish peace, stability, and prosperity in Syria, and will never allow Syria to be destabilized,” the statement concluded.
The dispute comes amid already strained relations between Turkey and Israel. Ankara and Jerusalem had been moving toward renewed diplomatic ties before the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist massacre in southern Israel, but relations deteriorated sharply afterward. Turkish officials, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have since repeatedly criticized Israel.
In March of last year, Erdogan described Israel as a “terror state” after Israeli preemptive strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. He later said Netanyahu’s government represented the single greatest threat to stability in the Middle East.
Erdogan renewed his criticism last week, accusing Israel of seeking to remove the Palestinian Arab issue from the international agenda.
“The aim of the Netanyahu government is to remove Palestine from the common agenda of humanity by profiting from chaos and new conflicts in the region,” Erdogan alleged during a joint press briefing with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
He also pledged that Turkey would continue supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“No matter what they do, they will not succeed. The Palestinian cause will continue to grow in people’s hearts as they try to destroy it.”
Erdogan criticized Israel again on Monday during a phone call with US President Donald Trump. According to Turkey’s Communications Directorate, the two leaders discussed bilateral relations as well as international and regional developments.
Regarding Gaza, Erdogan told Trump that while efforts are focused on moving to the second phase of the peace framework, there has been an “increase in actions by the Israeli government targeting Palestinians”.
The Turkish statement added that “Turkey will continue to support lasting peace in the region and steps to be taken for the reconstruction of Gaza.”
Top Trump administration official says US is able to get 8-9 million barrels of oil out of the Persian Gulf, while Iran’s exports have fallen to zero.
By World Israel News Staff
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday that Iran is currently exporting no oil at all, portraying the US naval blockade as having effectively severed one of Tehran’s most important sources of revenue as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on the Islamic Republic.
“Iran’s exports today are zero barrels of oil per day,” Wright said during an appearance on Fox News. “The United States military is bringing out 8 or 9 million barrels of oil per day.”
Wright was referring to US efforts to prevent Iranian oil shipments from leaving the Persian Gulf while helping other regional producers move crude through or around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway at the center of the months-long confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
Iran “can’t export any oil right now,” he continued, and argued that the resulting economic pressure gives President Donald Trump considerable leverage to wait for Tehran to accept US demands.
“I think he does,” Wright said when asked whether Trump had the ability to wait Iran out. “The president is playing the long game.”
If sustained, the near-total cutoff would represent an extraordinary decline for a country that was exporting roughly 1.7 million barrels of crude and condensate per day before the war.
Iran had relied overwhelmingly on China to purchase its oil despite years of US sanctions.
Independent shipping data broadly supports Wright’s claim that new Iranian exports have been brought close to a standstill, although the precise volume is difficult to verify because Iranian tankers have frequently used opaque ownership structures, ship-to-ship transfers and disabled tracking equipment.
Iranian exports had already collapsed after the US Navy began enforcing a blockade on April 13.
Vortexa estimated that exports fell from nearly 1.9 million barrels per day in March to 1.34 million in April and just 209,000 barrels per day in May. Kpler put May exports at roughly 260,000 barrels per day.
The blockade was temporarily lifted in mid-June as Washington and Tehran reached an interim agreement intended to end the war.
The US also issued a temporary sanctions waiver permitting Iranian oil sales, allowing tankers to begin moving crude out of Iranian waters again.
That opening proved short-lived.
The June agreement unraveled amid a dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz, and Washington subsequently reimposed its blockade.
US officials said last week that Iran’s primary source of hard currency was again being cut off.
The 60-day period established under the June memorandum expired Monday without a broader peace agreement, and Trump said the United States was not seeking to extend it.
Iran, meanwhile, threatened to adopt a “fully offensive” posture and said it could launch military action to break the US blockade if diplomacy fails.
Washington has signaled that the economic squeeze could now become considerably more severe.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the Navy is capable of maintaining the blockade for as long as necessary.
“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent separately promised another escalation of US economic measures against Tehran.
“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” Bessent said.
Wright’s assertion that the US military is helping move “8 or 9 million barrels” of oil per day out of the region is more disputed than his claim about Iran’s exports.
The energy secretary made a similar claim last week, saying the seven-day average of oil leaving through the Strait of Hormuz had risen to nearly 9 million barrels per day and that additional pipeline and export routes had brought total regional flows to roughly 15 million barrels per day.
Commercial tanker-tracking services have recorded substantially lower volumes.
Kpler calculated crude exports through Hormuz at 1.74 million barrels per day for the week beginning August 3, while its four-week average for total Middle Eastern crude exports stood at 12.26 million barrels per day.
LSEG Oil Research put regional exports during the first 12 days of August at 9.33 million barrels per day.
The discrepancy could partly reflect shipments not visible to commercial tracking systems, differences in methodology or the counting of ship-to-ship transfers.
Wright has maintained that US military monitoring gives the government a more complete picture of traffic than publicly available vessel-tracking systems.
Whatever the exact total, shipping through Hormuz remains far below normal levels. Before the war, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the strait, with 130 to 140 ships transiting the waterway daily.
The disruption has contributed to sharply higher energy costs.
Brent crude settled at $90.87 per barrel Monday after reaching as high as $126 during the conflict, while average US regular gasoline prices have climbed above $4.06 per gallon, nearly 30% higher than a year earlier.
Trump acknowledged the political and economic cost last week, telling supporters that Americans may have to accept higher fuel prices as part of the effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Wright said Monday that Trump was asking Americans to “bear with him.”
“We’re going to continually get better at escorting traffic out,” he said, “and the power of Iran is going to continue to shrink.”
Left to right: White House adviser Jared Kushner, Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP, Chaim Goldberg/ FLASH90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted during a meeting Monday with envoys from the White House and the US-backed Board of Peace that Israel would not redeploy any of its forces in Gaza or allow reconstruction to begin until the Strip was completely disarmed, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
“The agreement was that there would be no redeployment or reconstruction until Hamas is disarmed throughout Gaza,” the official said of the premier’s four-hour meeting with Trump aide Jared Kushner and Board of Peace officials Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair.
According to a CNN report, citing an Israeli source familiar with the discussions, Kushner pressed Netanyahu during the lengthy meeting to “not create obstacles” to the implementation of the Board’s 15-point plan for disarming Hamas and moving toward the second and reconstruction-focused phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
Hamas has said it accepted the framework, which envisions the group gradually handing over its weapons, as Israel conducts corresponding withdrawals from Gaza, but Netanyahu has rejected the proposal, insisting that the terror group fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawals from the Strip.
According to the CNN report, Netanyahu told Kushner and Mladenov that progress on the 15-point framework was politically “problematic” ahead of Israel’s October 27 Knesset election, insisting instead that Hamas take steps first.
Pressed on whether Netanyahu would even be willing to approve IDF withdrawals within Gaza, the senior Israeli official indicated that no pull-backs whatsoever would be approved before the full disarmament of both light and heavy weapons.
Palestinians in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip, August 12, 2026. (Abed Rahim Khatib/FLASH90)
“The prime minister was very clear that the IDF won’t redeploy and will continue to actively thwart any effort against our forces and against our people,” the official said.
“The first step towards the demilitarization of the Strip would be for Hamas to hand over all of its weapons for decommissioning,” the official said, adding that this would be under US supervision. “It was also agreed to that we’d support any efforts to help with sanitation and any other health and environmental concerns,” the official added.
Progress within a month
Despite the apparent Israeli pushback, Kushner told Fox News in an interview later Monday that progress in getting Hamas to give up its weapons could materialize in about a month.
“We could be seeing progress… in as little as 30 days, hopefully in starting to take some of the weapons out,” Kushner told Fox News while in Israel.
Filling in Gaza’s Hamas tunnels could happen in the next 60 to 90 days, Kushner added.
“Progress could come quite soon, but we do need cooperation from both sides,” he acknowledged.
Kushner said the Israeli side voiced some “valid concerns” during the Jerusalem meeting.
The Trump administration is committed to helping rebuild Gaza — destroyed in the war that followed the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.
“But we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until demilitarization occurs. Nobody wants to put more money into a place… if it’s just going to be taken over by terrorists,” he said. “We’re also not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats, so we had to clarify what that means.”
“For Israel we think it’s a win-win situation,” Kushner said. Either Hamas will go ahead in disarming “willingly over the next 60 to 90 days” or “Israel will have a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way.”
Kushner said he had a “very cordial” meeting with Hamas officials in Egypt on Sunday, but “it’s very hard to trust a terrorist organization.”
“They said all the right things, so we’re going to give them a chance to perform,” he added.
PM, Kushner, agree on deconfliction mechanism for reacting to Hamas threats in Gaza — report
During his meeting with Netanyahu, Channel 12 reported that Kushner made clear that the Board of Peace supports Israel’s right to act against imminent threats from Hamas, but that Israel should not define “imminent threats” too broadly.
To that end, Kushner and Netanyahu agreed to establish a deconfliction mechanism for Gaza, to assess whether Israeli claims of emerging threats are genuine or could be resolved through non-military means, a senior US official told the network.
Israeli military officers have previously said that rules of engagement in the territory are much tighter now than they had been before the disarmament plan was approved by Hamas on July 30.
The US official claimed to Channel 12 that the gaps between the Board of Peace and Israel are not huge, but that Washington wants Jerusalem to take limited steps to give the process room to test whether Hamas actually begins surrendering its weapons.
The official did not specify what those steps would be, but there is a long list of humanitarian-related commitments that Israel made as part of the October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas that have not yet been met.
During the meeting, Netanyahu pressed Kushner on why he chose to meet senior Hamas officials in Egypt a day earlier, to which Kushner responded that he wanted to hear their commitment to disarmament directly from them, “face-to-face,” the US official said. Kushner also pointed out that his last in-person meeting with Hamas officials resulted in the October 2025 hostage release deal.
Israel agrees to set up working groups on demilitarization and humanitarian issues
Netanyahu has expressed heavy skepticism about Hamas’s commitment to disarm, and brought to the meeting Shin Bet chief David Zini and IDF head of military intelligence Shlomi Binder to brief Kushner on alleged Hamas violations of Trump’s Gaza plan, Channel 12 reported.
In its own statement, the Prime Minister’s Office called the conversations with Kushner “deep and constructive.”
Netanyahu’s office said the officials agreed to establish two “working groups, one on disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza, which both Israel and the Board of Peace are determined should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza.”
“A second working group will focus on sanitation, clean water and other public health issues for the people of Gaza and which also impact the people of Israel,” the statement concluded.
The senior Israeli official could not provide further details on the composition or precise role of the groups, or the timeline for their establishment.
A displaced Palestinian man carries empty containers while heading to refill fresh water in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
In a separate statement, a Board of Peace official claimed the sides agreed “on a path forward. The Israelis are going to give this a chance. Now it’s up to Hamas to show if it truly intends to comply.”
“The Board of Peace informed the prime minister that Hamas has committed to fully disarm and to cease immediately all military activity in Gaza, including rearmament and tunnel digging. The prime minister affirmed that Israel will honor its outstanding past commitments that helped the United States secure the release of all hostages,” the official added.
Kushner, Mladenov and Blair also met subsequently with President Isaac Herzog, following their sit-down with Netanyahu.
In a brief readout, Herzog praised the officials’ efforts in “advancing to the next stages in Gaza in accordance with President Trump’s 20-Point Plan,” adding that he “was impressed that Israel’s security interests are an important and central element of their plan.”
“I commended and encouraged their efforts to ensure a brighter and more secure future for the people of Israel, the people of Gaza, and the entire region,” Herzog said.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov and White House aide Jared Kushner (second and third from left, respectively) meet with President Isaac Herzog (fourth from left), alongside other aides, in Jerusalem, on August 17, 2026. (Shalev Shalom)
The visit to Israel followed Kushner’s talks with Hamas officials Sunday in Cairo, as the Board works to advance the disarmament plan.
At the talks, Hamas said it would only begin disarming, as required by the US-backed Board of Peace’s Gaza plan, if Netanyahu publicly commits to adhering to the terms of the plan, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.
Hamas said later that it had asked the Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to accept the plan.
The Board of Peace is hoping that coaxing Netanyahu to quietly restore a halt on IDF strikes in Gaza will be sufficient to allow Hamas to begin handing over its weapons.
But the Arab diplomat said the terror group – which remains the de facto government of a large swath of the Strip – is unlikely to do so without a public announcement from Netanyahu expressing support for the plan.
Egypt’s General Intelligence Service head, Hassan Rashad (right), hosts Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya in Cairo, August 16, 2026. (Via X, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Trump was asked about his aides’ diplomatic tour. He indicated progress on Hamas disarming under his plan, and said that Israel should not be striking Gaza right now.
“We have our own relationship with Hamas. They are giving up their guns,” the US president said.
Several regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, issued a statement Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection of the roadmap, saying, “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the ceasefire mediators.
The foreign ministers’ statement called on the Board of Peace and the US to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation. Israel had no immediate response.
Report: Military brass from Uganda, Burundi in Israel to discuss joining Gaza security force
Meanwhile, the Kan public broadcaster reported that senior military officers from the African nations of Uganda and Burundi visited the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat on Monday to discuss sending hundreds of soldiers to join the nascent international security force meant to patrol postwar Gaza.
Uganda’s parliament earlier this month approved the deployment of troops to Gaza as part of the International Stabilization Force being set up by Trump’s Board of Peace to help secure postwar Gaza and facilitate the disarmament of Hamas.
However, this marked the first report of the involvement of Burundi in the ISF.
The force, proposed by Trump’s Board of Peace in February, would be led by American Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who said in May that the envisioned 20,000-strong force would ensure “future prosperity and enduring peace.”
