Enlarge image

"100 Days – 7.10.": With this message, Sagiv Yehezkel commemorates Hamas' attack on Israel with at least 1200,<> dead

Photograph:

Depo Photos / IMAGO

Israeli professional footballer Sagiv Jehezkel was released from pre-trial detention in Turkey on Monday. This is reported by the DHA news agency. The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the release of the 28-year-old and said Jehezkel would return to Israel on Monday. On Sunday evening, Jehezkel was arrested because of a message shown at a game about the Gaza war.

After scoring a goal in the match between his club Antalyaspor and Trabzonspor, the professional footballer had the message written on a bandage on his hand: "100 days. 07.10«. This is an allusion to the 100-day Gaza war, which began on October 7 with a Hamas attack on Israel.

Expulsion after commemorative message

Antalyaspor subsequently announced the player's dismissal. This had violated "the values of our country", the football club explained. The Turkish Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunc, had emphasized in the short message service X that the public prosecutor's office of Antalya had initiated proceedings against the multiple Israeli international for "public incitement to hatred". Yehezkel celebrated the "massacre committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip." Tunc stressed that Turkey would continue to "support the oppressed Palestinians."

On October 7, militants from Hamas, a terrorist organization designated by the US and the EU, brutally attacked Israel, killing some 1140,250 people and abducting around <> people to the Gaza Strip. In response to the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly referred to Israel as a "terrorist state" since the war began. Hamas, on the other hand, was described as a "liberator."

asc/sid/Reuters