Somaliland denies reports of Israeli military base Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel will deepen its cooperation with Somaliland , whose officials denied rumours that the Israeli military is building a base there. Israel was training Somaliland's military and police, but reports on negotiations to establish an Israeli military base in the territory were "rumours", Somaliland's Defence Minister Mohamed Yusuf Ali said, speaking on the sidelines of a business conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Somaliland’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi arrived last week in Israel for his first-ever state visit, during which the country opened an embassy in Jerusalem.