Israeli footballer detained in Turkey over Gaza war message

Turkish authorities opened investigation into Sagiv Jehezkel for ‘inciting the public to hatred and hostility,’ justice minister says.

Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel was arrested by Turkish police and sacked by the Antalyaspor football club on Sunday for displaying a reference to the war in Gaza after scoring a goal.

After finding the back of the net with an equalizing goal during a game in the Turkish football league, Jehezkel pointed to his wristband, which bore the inscription “100 days. 7/10,” referring to the 100-day anniversary of the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people on Israeli soil.

Jehezkel, a forward who has earned eight caps with the Israeli national team, was later detained by Antalya police, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

According to Turkish news broadcaster NTV, the footballer was freed on Monday morning after appearing in court, and will now await trial. “I am not a pro-war person,” Jehezkel said in a statement to the media, adding he did not mean to “provoke anyone” and “want[s] the war to end.”

In a statement on X, Turkey’s Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said the Antalya chief public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation into the Israeli national for “inciting the public to hatred and hostility due to his ugly gesture supporting Israel’s massacre in Gaza.”

“We will always continue to stand by the oppressed people of Palestine,” Tunç said.

Antalyaspor football club said it expelled Jehezkel from the team for acting “against the national values ​​of our country.”

Naftali Bennett, a former Israeli prime minister, called the reaction from Turkish authorities “unbelievable.”

“Shame on you, Turkish government,” Bennett wrote on X.

Jehezkel is the latest football player to face legal proceedings over a public stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

In France, Algerian defender Youcef Atal, who plays with OGC Nice, was handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence earlier this month for publishing a video calling for “a black day for the Jewish people” on social media.