World
Merz urges deeper ties with Turkey despite disagreements on Gaza
Europe should forge a deeper strategic partnership with Turkey in response to emerging global challenges, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday on his first official visit to Ankara, which has played a crucial mediating role in the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Merz was speaking alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, just days after Turkey and the United Kingdom finalised a multi-billion-euro deal for the sale of 20 Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
Germany, part of the consortium that manufactures the advanced fighter aircraft, recently lifted its longstanding objection to their export to Turkey.
Merz’s visit also comes amid reports of German backing for Turkey’s participation in a European defence initiative known as the Security Action for Europe (SAFE), a €150 billion programme designed to enhance the continent’s military capabilities.
The initiative allows non-EU countries, including Turkey, to join defence projects.
Greece openly opposes Turkey’s participation in SAFE, arguing that Ankara must first drop its standing threat of war linked to sea boundary disputes between the two NATO members.
Merz did not mention SAFE but underscored the importance of cooperation.
“Germany and Turkey should use the enormous potential of our relations even better in the coming months and years,” he said.
“There are compelling reasons for this, because we are entering a new geopolitical phase marked by the politics of great powers,” the chancellor said.
“A central conclusion from that for me is that as Germans and Europeans, we must expand our strategic partnerships, and there is no way around a good and deepened partnership with Turkey.”
Divisions surfaced during the joint news conference over human rights and the situation in Gaza.
The advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, had urged Merz to speak out against Turkey’s crackdown on the opposition, including the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
The opposition figure, widely seen as a potential challenger to Erdoğan, has been held in pretrial detention since March on corruption charges, which he denies. This week, Turkish authorities filed new charges against him for alleged espionage.
Merz avoided direct mention of İmamoğlu but said: “Decisions have been made in Turkey that do not yet meet the requirements regarding the rule of law and democracy as we understand them from the European point of view.”
Erdoğan responded by defending Turkey’s judicial system.
“No matter what position you hold, if you trample on the law, judicial authorities in a state governed by the rule of law are obliged to take whatever action is necessary,” he said.
On the issue of Gaza, Merz said that Germany has stood firmly by Israel since it was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust and will always do so. But “that doesn’t mean that we respect or accept every political decision by an Israeli government and accept it without criticism.”
Merz has frequently criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza in recent months.
On Thursday, he stressed that “Israel made use of its right of self-defence and it would have taken only a single decision to avoid the countless unnecessary victims: Hamas should have released the hostages earlier and laid down its weapons. Then this war would have been over immediately.”
Erdoğan, a vocal critic of Israel’s military actions, again accused Israel of using “starvation and genocide” as weapons of war.
The Turkish leader argued that Hamas does not possess bombs or nuclear weapons, while Israel does, and criticised Germany for allegedly ignoring the imbalance.
“As Germany, can’t you see this?” he asked.
Additional sources • AP
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it eliminated Hamas Commander Anas Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, who infiltrated Israel and participated in the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival Massacre.
Hamed was killed during a targeted Monday strike in Gaza, the IDF announced Tuesday.
“The IDF struck yesterday in the center of the Gaza Strip and eliminated Ans Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, Nukhba commander in the Hamas terror organization, who raided the territory of the State of Israel and the Nova festival during the murderous massacre on October 7,” the IDF wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X.
The IDF called Hamed an “immediate threat to IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip,” and said he was “eliminated in a precise airstrike.”
ISRAEL ANNOUNCES IT KILLED ONE OF THE ARCHITECTS OF THE OCT. 7 ATTACKS
A poster of Hamas Nukhba Commander Anas Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, who the Israel Defense Forces claim to have eliminated, Monday, May 4, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF said it has forces “deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”
Nukhba, which is Arabic for elite, is the special forces for the Al-Qassam Brigades, which is Hamas’ military wing.
Both units were instrumental in the Oct. 7 massacre. The Al-Qassam Brigades planned and executed the attack, according to the IDF and the Counter Extremism Project. Of the 6,000 terrorists who invaded Israel during the attack, more than 3,800 were Nukhba fighters, the IDF stated in an August 2024 assessment.
The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Israelis and prompted a sprawling Israeli military campaign in Gaza. During this campaign, the IDF eliminated two commanders of the al-Qassam Brigades and numerous other members of the group’s military leadership.
ISRAELI MILITARY OPERATION IN GAZA EXPANDING TO SEIZE ‘LARGE AREAS’: ‘EXPANDING TO CRUSH AND CLEAN THE AREA’
Palestinian Hamas fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades participate in a military parade near the border in the central Gaza Strip on July 19, 2023, marking the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
A July 2024 targeted strike killed then-al-Qassam Brigades Commander Mohammed Deif. In May 2025, another airstrike killed his replacement, Mohammad Sinwar.
The latest Israeli strike in Gaza comes just under seven months after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in October. The IDF accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire in February by using ambulances to transport terrorists and weapons around the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire with daily airstrikes.
HAMAS TERRORISTS USE AMBULANCES, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS IN VIOLATION OF US-BROKERED CEASEFIRE, IDF OFFICIAL SAYS
Fox News’ Trey Yingst asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week if Hamas’ refusal to put down its weapons would prompt the Trump administration to support Israel resuming combat operations in Gaza.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio wait as President Donald Trump prepares to address the Knesset in Jerusalem on Oct. 13, 2025. Trump visited Israel hours after Hamas released some Israeli hostages as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in the Gaza conflict. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Let’s hope we can avoid that. That’s not the outcome we want,” Rubio told Yingst. “The outcome we want is for Hamas to be demilitarized, and a Palestinian security force backed by an international security force is able to secure Gaza.
Fox News Digital reached out to the IDF and the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.
Published on
Ukraine struck a critically important military-industrial complex in Russia on Tuesday, just days before the Kremlin’s Victory Day parade on 9 May.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a video of launches of domestically-made Flamingo cruise missiles, which he said covered a distance of more than 1,500km to strike a facility in Cheboksary in the Russian Federation’s Chuvash Republic.
The facility in question is a Russian state institute that produces components for high-precision weapons used by Moscow to attack Ukraine.
“The struck military production facility manufactured relay protection systems, automation equipment, and low-voltage apparatus,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“Russia must end its war and move to real diplomacy. We have made our proposal.”
Zelenskyy announced on Monday that Ukraine is declaring a ceasefire beginning at midnight on Wednesday. The proposal came in response to Russia’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire for its Victory Day parade.
“We believe that human life is far more valuable than any anniversary ‘celebration’,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia’s upcoming 9 May commemorations.
He warned that the timeframe of the proposed truce at midnight on the night of 5–6 May would be enough to test whether a genuine pause in fighting could be respected.
“We will act reciprocally starting from that moment,” Zelenskyy said.
“It is time for Russian leaders to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s defence ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill.”
Victory Day blackout
Russia has reportedly started cutting off mobile internet services to many users starting from Tuesday.
Russian banks, including the country’s largest, Sberbank, also cautioned that there could be issues with mobile internet and cash withdrawals.
This year the parade in Moscow will also be significantly scaled back, according to the Kremlin.
It would not feature military vehicles or cadets due to what the Kremlin described as “current operational situation”.
“All measures are being taken to minimise the danger,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier as he referred to what Moscow called a “terrorist threat” from Ukraine.
The fact that the parade is scaled down is seen as an important indicator of the situation in Russia’s military and of personnel and equipment shortages.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank assessed that in April, Russian forces lost territory they occupied in Ukraine for the first time in over a year and a half.
The ISW said it has evidence that Moscow lost control of 116 square kilometres over the course of last month.
The think tank explained that the Russian rate of advance across the battlefield has been steadily declining since November 2025,” as continued Ukrainian ground counterattacks and mid-range strikes, the February block on Russia’s use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s throttling of Telegram have exacerbated existing problems within the Russian military.
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