Israel's Foreign Ministry has criticized Turkey's Prime Minister for saying that his country won't be silent if the Zionist state launches another attack on the Gaza Strip. Speaking at the opening ceremony of "Turkiye", the new Arabic-language channel of the state-run TV station TRT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "We cannot watch the murder of children in Gaza with indifference." The Prime Minister said that his country's heart bleeds for the children of Haiti and Chile, as well as the children of Gaza.

According to Israel Radio, a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, "Erdogan should not try to integrate his country into the Arab world at Israel's expense." The official added that Turkey should "find a more creative way to integrate" with the rest of the Muslim world.