Turkish first division club Başakşekir on Thursday ended the loan of Israeli midfielder Eden Kartsev, who reposted a social media message calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas militants, Agence France-Presse reported.
The İstanbul side launched disciplinary proceedings against Kartsev earlier this week after the defensive midfielder shared a message reading: “Bring Them Home Now.”
The probe came the same day Israeli footballer Sagiv Jehezkel was briefly detained and charged with incitement to hatred for displaying a message about the Gaza war after scoring a goal for Antalyaspor.
Jehezkel left Turkey after being formally charged in an İstanbul court on Monday.
Başakşehir took Kartsev on loan from Israeli outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv last year.
“The player was fined in accordance with the club’s disciplinary instructions, and it was deemed appropriate for the football player to continue his career abroad,” Başakşehir said in a statement.
Maccabi said the 23-year-old — capped five times by Israel — was returning to the Tel Aviv side for the remainder of the season.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Israel over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza.
Turkey’s overnight detention of Jehezkel outraged top Israeli officials.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said it showed that “Turkey has become a dark dictatorship.”
Fighting has ravaged Gaza since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that resulted in the death of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants seized some 250 hostages during the October 7 attacks, around 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel is conducting relentless bombardment and a ground offensive.
These have killed at least 24,620 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, according to Gaza health ministry figures.