Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could enter Israel, as it has done in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, although he did not specify what kind of intervention he proposed, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Erdogan, a staunch opponent of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, began discussing the conflict in a speech in which he praised his country's defense industry.
"We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we can do the same thing with them," Erdogan said at a meeting of the ruling party in his hometown.
"There's no reason why we can't do that. We have to be strong to be able to take these steps," the Turkish president added in the televised speech.
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in "X" that "Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel." Let him remember what happened there and how it ended."
Erdogan appeared to be referring to previous actions by Turkey. In 2020, Ankara sent military personnel to Libya in support of the UN-recognized Libyan Government of National Accord led by Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeiba.
Ankara denies any direct role in Azerbaijan's military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, but last year said it was using "all means", including military training and modernization, to support its close ally Baku, Reuters noted.
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Meanwhile "Hezbollah" left positions in Lebanon after Israel threatened a heavy blow in response to the deadly rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights, AFP reported, citing a source close to the powerful pro-Iranian movement.
Israel promised to "hit the enemy with force" a day after a strike it blamed on Hezbollah killed 12 people in the annexed Syrian Golan Heights, raising fears of military action in the region amid the war in the Gaza Strip.
"Hezbollah", which denies being behind the attack, "is evacuating certain positions in the south and in the Bekaa that it believes could be a target for Israel," a source close to the group told AFP.
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"Hezbollah" has a strong presence on the Syrian border as well as in southern Lebanon, from where it has launched almost daily attacks against Israel since the start of the Gaza war nearly ten months ago. Forces of the formation, armed and financed by Iran, are also in Syria, where it supports the government of President Bashar Assad.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), other pro-Iranian and Hezbollah-linked groups have also vacated positions around Damascus, as well as in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights. The UK-based NGO, which has a wide network of sources in Syria, reports that in early June "Hezbollah" has left these sectors after being subjected to intense Israeli attacks.
These strikes in Syria also aim to cut off the supply routes of "Hezbollah".
According to Israel, an Iranian Falak missile fired from Lebanon at a soccer field in the Golan town of Majdal Shams killed 12 boys and girls yesterday and wounded around 30 people. The Lebanese movement denied being behind the strike, but said it had fired rockets at military positions in the Golan, including one in Falak, in response to the deaths of four of its fighters.