The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared that he is opposed to further deterioration in relations between Israel and Turkey, reports RBC.
“There will never be agreement between Israel and Turkey. However, we could try to stop any further deterioration in our relations", radio Europe 1 cites Mr Netanyahu. For a long time Turkey was one of the few allies of Israel among Muslim countries, but recently relations between the two states have worsened. For example, Israel was displeased with the showing of a TV-series containing scenes of Palestinian captives abused by Israeli soldiers. Then there was the scandal surrounding the Turkish Ambassador to Israel.
But the conflict escalated after the seizure of so-called “Gaza flotilla” by Israeli forces. On the 31st of May, six ships carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip were intercepted by Israeli marines. Eight Turkish citizens and one American citizen of Turkish origin were killed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that Israel is not going to apologize for the incident, which he said was provoked by “a gang” trying to kill Israeli soldiers, but that the deaths of these people was regrettable.
