Turkey yesterday hosted a string of top diplomats from the Islamic world to bring their influence to bear on the future of Gaza, as fears grow for the increasingly fragile truce.
The Oct. 10 ceasefire in the two-year-long Israel-Hamas war, brokered by US President Donald Trump, has been sorely tested by continued Israeli strikes and claims of Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers.
In a bid to drive forward reconstruction efforts, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan invited his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia to Istanbul for talks to start at 2pm yesterday.
Photo:AFP
All of them were called to a meeting with Trump in late September on the margins of the UN General Assembly, just days before he unveiled his plan to end the fighting in Gaza.
Turkish foreign ministry sources say Ankara would press them to support plans for Palestinians to take control of the coastal territory’s security and governance.
At the weekend, Fidan welcomed a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the Palestinian Islamist movement’s lead negotiator.
“We must end the massacre in Gaza. A ceasefire in itself is not enough,” Fidan said, adding that “Gaza should be governed by the Palestinians.”
Earlier yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Hamas appeared committed to the truce, pointing the finger of blame at Israel.
“It seems Hamas is quite determined to adhere to the agreement while Israel’s record is very poor,” he told an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathering in Istanbul, saying Muslim states should play “a leading role” in Gaza’s recovery.
“We believe the reconstruction plan prepared by the Arab League and the OIC should be implemented immediately,” he said of the plan unveiled in March.
Turkey has been instrumental in backing Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.
Fidan is expected to repeat calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where aid agencies have complained their convoys still do not have enough access to alleviate the famine conditions in parts of the territory.
Israel has long viewed Turkey’s diplomatic overtures with suspicion over Ankara’s close ties with Hamas and has expressed its firm opposition to Turkey having any role in the international peacekeeping force being put together to oversee the ceasefire.
Under Trump’s plan, that stabilization mission is meant to take over in the wake of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
A Turkish disaster relief team, sent to help efforts to recover the many bodies buried under Gaza’s rubble, including those of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas, has likewise been stuck at the border because of the Israeli government’s refusal to let them in, Ankara said.
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