Türkiye and the Levant

The Israeli military (IDF) has carried out air stikes on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip overnight on 6-7 April. The military said they launched the strikes in response to a 34-rocket barrage fired from southern Lebanon into Israel on Thursday (6 April), which it blamed on Hamas. It was the biggest attack from Lebanon in 17 years. The Israeli military have said that 25 of the rockets fired from Lebanon were intercepted, but five hit Israeli territory. After the retaliatory strikes began, militants in Gaza then fired some 44 rockets into Israel, most of which were either intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defence system or fell in open areas, according to the IDF. At least one house in the city of Sderot was hit, however. According to the IDF, more than 10 Hamas targets were hit in Gaza, including a shaft for an underground site to construct weapons, three other weapons workshops and an underground tunnel. There have thus far been no casualties reported from either the strikes or the overnight rocket fire, however a man was injured by shrapnel in northern Israel on Thursday afternoon as a result of the rocket barrage from Lebanon.

Finland is set to become the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance after approving its membership in a parliamentary vote late on Thursday (30 March). After months of stalling over claims that Finland, along with its nordic neighbour Sweden, were supporting Kurdish "terrorists", the Turkish parliament finally approved Finland's membership in a vote of 276 MPs voting for, and 0 voting against. While Finland will now be formally admitted into the military alliance at its next summit in July in Lithuania, Sweden's membership bid, which was submitted at the same time as Finland's, is still being held up by Ankara and Budapest. In a statement following the Turkish vote, the Finnish government said joining the alliance would strengthen the country's security, and improve stability and security in the region. Meanwhile the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin tweeted, "as allies, we will give and receive security. We will defend each other. Finland stands with Sweden now and in the future and supports its application."

Last night (26-27 March) saw massive protests in Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defence minister after he spoke out against controversial judicial reform plans that have led to weeks of protests. Gallant had voiced concerns that the divisions in society being caused by the proposed legislation were hurting morale in the military and emboldening Israel’s enemies across the region. "I see how the source of our strength is being eroded," Gallant said. This led to Netanyahu removing him from his position, saying that "he doesn’t have any faith in him anymore and therefore he is fired." Meanwhile Israel's President Isaac Herzog addressed Netanyahu, tweeting, "For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of the responsibility we are obliged to, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately." The judicial reform plans announced on 4 January would give parliament the authority to override Supreme Court decisions with a basic majority. The plans would also make it very difficult for the courts to declare a prime minister unfit for office and remove them for the courts.

Today on Thursday (16 March), the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) will meet in the Turkish capital of Ankara to discuss regional disaster preparation, joint humanitarian relief, and the interoperability of Turkic State disaster responses. The meeting comes some six weeks after a devasting earthquake in Turkey and Syria that has killed over 50,000 people. Established in 2009 as the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, the OTS is an intergovernmental organisation that has as its "overarching aim" the promotion of "comprehensive cooperation among Turkic States". It has five member states - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan - as well as three observer states, namely Turkmenistan, Hungary and the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyrpus. The precise theme of Thursday's extraordinary summit is "Disaster-Emergency Management and Humanitarian Assistance". Among those attending the summit are President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.