Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a ceremony for the handover of new vehicles to the gendarmerie and police forces in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Israel’s new top diplomatic envoy to Turkey, Joel Lion, presented his credentials to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara on Wednesday, taking up his post as relations between the two countries plunge deeper into crisis and tensions continue to rise across the region.

As acting chargé d’affaires, Lion — who previously served as Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, Moldova, and Armenia — will oversee Israel’s diplomatic engagement with Turkish officials and manage bilateral affairs.

The new Israeli envoy replaces Irit Lillian, who served as ambassador to Ankara from 2022 until her retirement over the summer.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Israel began conducting its diplomatic affairs with Turkey from Jerusalem, with Lillian returning to Israel over security concerns.

Despite the strained state of bilateral ties, Lillian continued to maintain professional contact with Turkish officials while working from abroad, keeping communication channels open between the two sides and addressing issues involving Israeli citizens in Turkey.

The Turkish government had also recalled its ambassador from Israel, further deepening the diplomatic rift between the two countries as regional tensions continued to escalate.

Now, as the Israeli embassy in Turkey remains closed, Lion is expected to work primarily from Israel, continuing to manage diplomatic contacts and communications with Turkish officials from abroad.

Under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply following the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Turkey has become one of Israel’s most vocal and aggressive critics on the world stage, leading international efforts to pressure, boycott, and isolate the Jewish state. 

Erdogan has repeatedly praised Hamas, hosted senior figures from the terrorist group, accused Israel of “genocide,” and used international forums to amplify increasingly fierce anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey have continued to rise, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month lambasting Erdogan as an “antisemitic dictator” after Turkey said it would seek an international arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.

The latest developments further escalated already high tensions between the two countries following Israel’s strike on a Syrian airbase over concerns regarding the potential deployment of Turkish troops there.

“Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement at the time. “He now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it.”

According to local media reports, Israel has also been considering scenarios in which a potential confrontation with Turkey could spill into the eastern Mediterranean and involve Cyprus, as the Jewish state expands its bilateral ties and security cooperation with Greece.

The report alleges that Israel is weighing possible strikes against Turkish military targets in northern Cyprus if Jerusalem determines that Ankara’s military presence on the island poses a threat to the country’s interests.

For Turkey, the growing Greek-Israeli military partnership is transforming the Aegean dispute into part of a much broader regional security realignment, as Israeli weapons, technology, and strategic cooperation become increasingly embedded in Greece’s military posture while the Turkish-Israeli rivalry intensifies from the eastern Mediterranean to Syria.