Northern Cyprus to restrict property sales after rumors of mass purchases by Jewish people.

Northern Cyprus is set to restrict the sale of real estate to foreigners after an advertising campaign in the Turkish media claimed that thousands of Israelis and Jewish people were buying property in the region.

The decision came after a series of social media posts by Sabahattin Ismail, a journalist who was an adviser to former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktash.

Since October and the start of Israel's war on Gaza, Ismail has been publishing data on sales and company registers which he claims show that thousands of Jews from Israel and European countries have bought homes and plots here.

Some Turkish newspapers, without citing a source, claim that 35,000 Jews have bought property in Northern Cyprus, occupying 2,500 hectares of land, while the population of Northern Cyprus is only 380,000. The media have not been able to independently confirm these figures.

Turkish officials, however, said the figures were greatly exaggerated. TRNC Interior Minister Dursun Oguz said in November that the government was preparing two laws to regulate the sale of real estate to foreign nationals. Decisions of the Council of Ministers may allow foreigners to purchase real estate from residents of Northern Cyprus without registering the sale.

It has also been reported that following the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's war against Gaza, hostility towards members of the local Jewish community has increased in North Cyprus. Rabbi Chaim Hilliel Azimov, who founded a Jewish community in North Cyprus, has fled the region amid allegations of selling real estate and rumored ties to Israeli intelligence.

Azimov's villa, which he used as both a home and place of worship, was marked with a Hebrew inscription saying it was "the address of all Jews in North Cyprus." However, authorities decided that the inscription was unauthorized and should be removed.