Israeli doctor saved Turkey’s anti-Israel president in secret mission – report

Former spokesman for Israel’s Ichilov Hospital says an Israeli doctor was dispatched to Turkey to save President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s life.

By World Israel News Staff

A former spokesman for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital has claimed that an Israeli physician was secretly sent to Turkey at the Mossad’s request and helped save Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from a serious illness.

Avi Shoshan made the claim during a Channel 14 panel discussion as participants examined footage of Erdoğan attending the NATO summit in Ankara.

Shoshan said the alleged mission occurred approximately six or seven years ago, when Erdoğan became seriously ill with cancer.

He said a senior doctor from Ichilov Hospital traveled to Turkey as a representative of Israel, with authorization from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel saved Erdoğan. The Mossad sent a doctor from Israel,” Shoshan said.

He did not initially identify the physician but said the doctor was a prominent specialist affiliated with Ichilov, formally known as the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

Shoshan said Israeli journalists had pursued the story when the alleged treatment occurred but that he declined to confirm it at the time. He presented the account as particularly striking because of Erdoğan’s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel.

“This man, who today threatens Jews, is alive and breathing thanks to a Jew,” Shoshan said.

Neither the Israeli government, the Mossad nor Ichilov Hospital has publicly confirmed Shoshan’s account. Erdoğan’s office also has not been reported as responding to the allegation.

During a follow-up Channel 14 broadcast, presenter Yehuda Schlesinger telephoned Prof. Itzhak Shapira, a former deputy director-general of Ichilov who was identified by the program as the physician involved.

Shapira did not confirm or deny the report. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak to journalists,” he said before ending the call.

Shoshan attributed the refusal to speak to security and censorship restrictions but provided no independently verifiable evidence to support that explanation.

The claim follows an earlier report linking Shapira to Erdoğan’s medical care.

Ynet reported in January 2022 that the Turkish president had been receiving medical advice from Shapira, a cardiologist who also oversaw Ichilov’s medical tourism operations and advised foreign leaders.

At the time, sources familiar with the relationship said they would not be surprised if the two had met in Turkey.

Shapira and the hospital declined to comment, and there was no official information about the nature of Erdoğan’s medical condition.

Erdoğan underwent two intestinal operations in late 2011 and early 2012.

Reports that he had colon cancer circulated afterward, including claims contained in a leaked private intelligence email.

Turkish officials rejected those accounts.

Erdoğan denounced the speculation and said that “God and only God” knew how long any person would live. An aide said his health was very good, while the surgeon who operated on him reportedly described the cancer allegations as false.

Shoshan’s account places the alleged Israeli intervention several years after those operations and therefore appears to describe a separate medical episode. The precise date, diagnosis and treatment remain unclear.

The disclosure comes amid sharply deteriorating relations between Israel and Turkey.

Erdoğan has repeatedly accused Israel of destabilizing the region and condemned its military operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

Turkey has halted trade with Israel and maintained close political ties with Hamas.

Days before Shoshan’s remarks, Erdoğan accused Israel of attempting to undermine a US-Iran agreement and described Netanyahu’s government as “war-addicted.” He said it should not be allowed to immerse the region in the “smell of gunpowder and blood again.”

Netanyahu has meanwhile accused Erdoğan and other senior Turkish officials of escalating threats against Israel. He reportedly asked President Donald Trump to pressure Erdoğan to moderate his rhetoric and opposed proposals to provide Turkey with advanced American fighter aircraft.