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Turkey’s Support to Hamas Hinders Improvement of Relations with Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
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Turkey’s Support to Hamas Hinders Improvement of Relations with Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)

The Israeli government has not positively responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s initiative to improve political relations between their countries, revealed political sources in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“Turkey’s relations with Hamas challenges the improvement of political relations between both countries, even though economic relations between them are flourishing and security ties are good,” a high-ranking Israeli minister said.

Political relations between their governments are bad, he added on condition of anonymity.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Erdogan said: “We would like to bring our ties to a better point.”

However, he insisted that the Palestine policy remains a red line. “It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable,” he stressed.

Officially, Israel has not responded to Erdogan’s statements.

However, the high-ranking minister said the situation with Turkey was completely unlike the four Arab countries that recently signed peace agreements with Israel, because of Turkey's support for Hamas.

The situation with Turkey is completely different from the four Arab countries that recently signed peace agreements with Israel, because of Ankara’s support for Hamas.

"The fact that Hamas' headquarters is located in Turkey is very problematic. It severely impedes everything," the minister said. As long as Turkey's approach to Hamas doesn't change, relations will not improve, he stressed.

In the past weeks, Azerbaijan has offered to mediate between Israel and Turkey with an aim to help improve diplomatic relations between them.

Last week, Turkey appointed Ufuk Ulutas, 40, as a new ambassador to Israel after a two-year absence.

Meanwhile, Pini Avivi, an Israeli who is keenly familiar with the Turkish president and is a former ambassador to Turkey between 2003-2007, told Israel Hayom on Sunday: "I wasn't surprised by Erdogan's desire for better relations with Israel, but by the fact that he said it out loud, which is incredibly significant."

Avivi continued: "In Erdogan's constellation of considerations, he is led by two central tenets – the first is 'neo-Ottomanism' and defending all Muslims. The second is to continue maintaining with Israel, to the greatest extent possible, not the past security relationship and joint military exercises of the past, but at least the whole matter of economic relations, which have grown in scope from $1 billion to $5.5 billion."

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World

US Sending 3rd Aircraft Carrier, More Troops to Mideast

Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
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US Sending 3rd Aircraft Carrier, More Troops to Mideast

Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)

The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft-carrier strike group and an additional Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East, according to US officials, adding 9,000 to 10,000 more troops to the region as President Donald Trump considers renewing strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The ships, jet fighters, Marines and sailors will arrive in the region by the end of November, the officials said. Trump recently told aides that he expects to resume bombing Iran that same month, according to the newspaper.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left its home port of San Diego on Sunday on a scheduled deployment, while the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, comprising three amphibious ships carrying Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, left on Monday.

Two carriers—the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington—are already in the Middle East. If the Washington stays after the Roosevelt arrives it will bring the region to three carrier strike groups for the first time since April, before Iran and the US clinched a fragile ceasefire that temporarily ended fighting that began on Feb. 28. That ceasefire collapsed, and the two sides have fought sporadically since.

Besides the Bush and Washington, ships from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group are also in the Middle East. The additional servicemembers on the warships that deployed this week will add to the more than 50,000 troops already in the region, one of the officials said.

It is possible that the Washington could leave the region and head back to its home port in Japan, bringing the force back down to two carriers. Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

World

Iran Launches 30 Drone, 10 Missile Attacks Per Week on Ships in Hormuz

Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
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Iran Launches 30 Drone, 10 Missile Attacks Per Week on Ships in Hormuz

Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)

Iran has been launching dozens of drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz each week, largely out of the public eye, though it has often failed to strike its targets, confidential data shared with The New York Times by a Western security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters shows.

Since the beginning of August, Iran has launched about 30 drone attacks and 10 anti-ship missile attacks per week against commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the data shared with The Times by the official.

At least four commercial ships have been hit by Iran in the past 10 days, the official said.

A tally of reports by a monitoring group run by the British Navy show that since Sept. 10, at least 13 ships, most of them oil tankers, had been struck by projectiles or debris from projectiles. (Those reports may be incomplete because they are based on voluntary reports by ship crews.) While the reports do not specify who was responsible for the attacks, maritime experts say the details suggest many were Iranian.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps for the first time appeared to confirm it was behind the near-daily sounds of explosions heard from Iran’s southern coast, saying it was striking targets in the Strait of Hormuz every 24 hours.

“We prevent them from passing, but for some time now, America has not responded,” a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said in a state news interview.

The aggression shows that even as oil exports from the Middle East have rebounded in recent weeks, shipping through the waterway remains risky, as Iran jostles to keep control of one of its biggest sources of leverage.

“Negotiations aren’t going anywhere. Neither side is really budging. So it’s a standoff,” said Gregory Brew, an Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group.

He said that the violence in the strait “speaks to the position that both sides are in: Neither is looking to aggressively escalate the conflict.” But both, he said, want to control the waterway.

World

Trump Reportedly Expected to Name Jay Clayton as AI Czar

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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Trump Reportedly Expected to Name Jay Clayton as AI Czar

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

US President Donald Trump is expected to name Jay Clayton as his AI czar, CNN reported on Friday, citing two sources familiar with the discussion.

Clayton is the US director of national intelligence.

Last month, Trump said he plans to appoint an artificial intelligence adviser, known as an "AI czar," and create an "AI force," though he ⁠gave no details ⁠about either initiative or how they would be implemented.

This is the second time Trump has named an adviser to oversee AI-related decisions across the administration, a position he has ⁠dubbed "AI czar." Venture capitalist David Sacks held the role at the beginning of Trump's second term, before leaving his team. Sacks still advises Trump on AI.

Trump's move comes as top AI researchers have warned that people building AI believe it could kill humans within a decade, following cases of AI ⁠agents ⁠going rogue to hack external systems. Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers have responded with alarm and calls for more action.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns about AI and argued that additional regulation is unnecessary even as fears grow among lawmakers in Washington and globally about risks posed by the technology.