Turkey and Israel flags
Turkey and Israel flagsiStock

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claimed on Monday that Israel has denied his country’s request to join air drops of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Reuters reports.

He warned that Ankara will take new measures against Israel in response.

Turkey has sent tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

The United States started dropping deliveries of aid into Gaza by air last month, with the Netherlands, France, Spain and others contributing.

"We also conveyed our request to be included in this humanitarian aid operation with (Turkish) air forces' cargo planes. Today we learnt that our request was rejected by Israel, despite a positive approach by the Jordanian authorities," Fidan said in a statement to the media as quoted by Reuters.

"There is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to drop aid to starving Gazans," Fidan said, adding that Turkey has decided to take a "series of new measures" against Israel.

"These measures, approved by our president, will be implemented step by step, without delay," he stated, without elaborating.

Israeli authorities have not yet commented on the Turkish claims.

Israel and Turkey formally announced in August of 2022 that they would normalize relations by returning the ambassadors and consuls, after years of tensions.

However, since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has resumed his frequent verbal attacks on Israel.

In one speech, the Turkish President said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “committed one of the greatest atrocities of this century in Gaza and has already put his name down in history as the butcher of Gaza."

Last month, Erdogan again lashed out at Israel and at Netanyahu, saying they are “like today’s Nazis.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz later summoned the Turkish deputy ambassador for a reprimand in the wake of Erdogan's attacks on Netanyahu.